Chronicles of the Fall: Fishing for Sanity
by midori Haru
Summary: Just because Sesshoumaru claims somebody as mate, doesn't mean everything will run smoothly, especially with Naraku still on the loose!
1. Ghostly Forgiveness

This is one whopper of a chapter! Hello again and welcome to part 3 of this grand adventure. The path of true lust never did run smooth. heehee!

There's a lot of minor original characters in this part, which is to be expected considering there has to be people wherever the Inuyasha characters go. Minor Characters Rock, especially the random ones with too much information. Watch out though. I like to turn my minor characters into recurring nightmares of the main characters. or rather, I really like to annoy the crud out of my main characters and some of my special minor characters had awesome mad skills in that department so they get more text play than one might expect.

Thanks to all my repeat readers and to all my first time readers. Don't feel bad if you're a little lost. Just know that Aki's awesome, Fred is funny, and everybody else is scenery... I think! WEll excepting some of those characters that aren't mine, you know, the ones that belong to Rumiko Takahashi!

**Ghostly Forgiveness**

Aki kept running despite the acid burn in her lungs. Her muscles screamed for rest but she couldn't stop. If she ran fast enough, far enough, he wouldn't catch up. She had to believe that, there was nothing else she could do.

Her stomach protested its long emptied state loudly. She hadn't eaten in days, not even when her appetite had made one of its rare appearances to tug at her attention. She didn't have time for the frivolity of food when speed was the only thing keeping her from the evil chasing at her heels.

And what was this terror that drove her along before it? If you looked behind her far enough would you see it? Probably not, though it was there. Most people if faced with him wouldn't see him either, but she had seen him and that was enough. He showed his face to her infrequently, though his touch was too often apparent.

It was that painted detachment that hounded her. Every moment that she spent lost in the fields of her dreams was a moment that he would use to torture and fight her. So she avoided sleep.

But one couldn't remain awake forever. The need for rest would drive her into collapse and she would be trapped once more in the domain where he was at his most powerful. Her only hope was that he would be like Fred and would require at least a small amount of time to catch up with her across certain distances. Even with the ghosts ability to just "poof" himself places if the distance was great it took time to travel it.

So Aki ran as far and as fast as she could before she collapsed and prayed she would be able to wake before the detachment caught up with her. Unfortunately this left her without the companionship of her dead friend, so she was completely alone.

She tried to remember a time when she hadn't labored under the fear of her dream invader. Then she abandoned the recollection when it brought to mind the inu youkai she had willingly left behind. Strangely she had been able to sleep without disturbance in his company. But she refused to go back to spending time with the demon that was most likely very upset with her, she would keep her promises and continue to follow through with her decision to avoid him in the future. It was for his own good, even if she suffered because of it.

Aki paused to catch her breath as her legs shook with weakness. Her breath rasped dryly in her throat as she tried to ease the stitch in her side absently.

Whatever Sesshoumaru had done after her fall over the cliff had left her with a new understanding of her powers. They'd spent days, Sesshoumaru and herself, resting and awaking at strange intervals. According to Tama, He would always wake up just after she'd doze off. Fred had told her Sesshoumaru was always upset to have missed her with her eyes open.

She'd left as soon as she'd been able to, and without saying goodbye to Sesshoumaru.

At first Fred had been all for Aki leaving; then he'd discovered her new stalker. Everyone had pretty much forgotten about the painted detachment in the worry over more immediate problems. Now she seldom saw the ghost, he couldn't keep up with her.

Aki began to move again, sending her senses out to detect the life around her. She hadn't realized before staying with Sesshoumaru that what she could sense was the energy of life rather than the scent of it. She could more accurately determine what lay ahead because of it.

A lot of things had been different after what Sesshoumaru had done. Right after she'd left his estate, Aki had felt stronger than she should be. After she realized it was due to him pouring energy and power into her she did her best to block it using what he'd taught her. Every other change was small and reminded her of the inu youkai, so she ignored it.

Abruptly she stopped her forward motion as she sensed something strange. Not far ahead and to the east of her there was a village. Aki could instinctively tell the difference between human and youkai energy, and she could also accurately judge the age of a human from their energy. And from her sense of the energy, this village was being massacred. What horrified her all the more was the number of children that were being slaughtered.

Something inside her snapped at the death of the children. Aki could not standby and allow so many lives to be cut so short and not bring down some kind of punishment on the head of the one responsible. Her very soul, buried and half dead as it was, would not stand for it!

Before true thought could form in her head, Aki was heading towards the site of so much carnage faster than she had fled from the monster in her nightmares. She was so fast she managed to get there just in time to watch Naraku finish off the last villager.

Naraku reveled in the bloodshed of his own making. He rarely gave himself the opportunity to cause mass destruction these days, but when he'd demanded the townspeople hand over the shard he was looking for he simply couldn't resist. After all, they had stupidly denied him; they obviously deserved it.

And now he was apparently gifted with his prize arriving early. Naraku wasn't against absorbing Aki without bothering to follow the rules. Not that absorbing her before finding her name was stipulated in the rules of their contest; it wasn't. He knew that she was exhausted from his detachment constantly goading her into fleeing before him. She hadn't eaten or rested properly in weeks. Hopefully she was weak enough that he could pull off absorbing her right now.

Aki's eyes bled green at the sight before her. Blood was everywhere and she was pretty sure these people hadn't deserved to die like this. Her talons lengthened with her rage, her tail lashed the air behind her and she growled at him incapable of coherent speech.

Naraku could feel her youki pouring off her several meters away when she let it loose to swirl around her violently, damaging some of the closest huts in the process. He smirked at her before Musou called his appreciation for her beauty from the corner he'd been relegated to, some days the reabsorbed detachment was entirely too vocal to be ignored.

"Na-ra-ku!" Aki growled his name. Her voice had become impossibly deep with her anger. She charged at him without further warning.

Naraku answered her move with one of his own and soon they were both crashing through the village. Aki using speed to increase the power behind her blows while Naraku utilized cunning. At one point they both wound up tangled together in such a way that caused them to fall on the ground.

Naraku found himself hovering lengthwise over her body. Suddenly Musou's appreciation clamored through his head and his attention was drawn to notice just exactly what the bastard might be talking about. Lust flared through his body as he took the time to realize that he was hovering over a powerful female worth looking at.

The moment of unified understanding was short lived. Aki reached up and grabbed his shoulder as she let out a fierce kick that caught him in the groin and sent him flying end over end away from her.

They both scrambled to their feet to face off with each other. Naraku narrowed his eyes at her and Aki let loose a growl. He took stock of the damage that had been dealt to the both of them and realized that she would still win at this rate because she could ignore her pain and exhaustion better than he could. Time to regroup. He turned and fled from the village.

Aki let out an inhuman cry of outrage and followed him. She didn't even realize that she had won their contest. Naraku had evinced a feeling of lust and right before he left there was a flicker of fear. But she didn't care. This wasn't about that.

This fight had been about the villagers and the children he had massacred without reason. Some instinct told her that such a crime against children could not go unpunished.

Naraku's quick retreat took him directly between Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. The two brothers were fighting again, with all the weapons and name-calling required for any loving family altercation. In other words, they were deliberately trying to kill each other. Feel the Love.

Normally, Naraku would be cursing his luck right about now, but for one thing. He'd ordered Kagura to keep watch on this rather troublesome group. Thus he had a manner of escaping both the inu brothers and Aki.

By the time Naraku had taken off on Kagura's feather Aki had landed in the clearing just as the two siblings released their attacks. How is it that she always manages to get caught between the two?

"NARAKU!" Aki screamed at his fleeing back as the smoke began to clear. Somehow she had managed to remain unscathed. Her blood still ran hot with anger and she would've continued to pursue the fleeing hanyou except Rin got in the way. More to the point Aki nearly ran the little girl over as she ran to hug her "nice lady".

Rin had been the only one to receive a goodbye from Aki when she left. It had hurt very much to see the former English tutor go. Rin had been even more upset when she found out that her beloved Sesshoumaru-sama had not also received a farewell.

When Aki realized that she couldn't avoid a collision with the child she pulled the girl against her and twisted so that the partial youkai landed on the bottom to save the girl from harm. The impact stunned her a moment as she saw stars. Aki quietly removed Rin's arms from her waist and quietly pushed the child off her.

Aki regained her feet only to be swept up by the very demon she wanted to avoid. Ah, Sesshoumaru. Why couldn't fate keep this guy away from her? Thankfully she wasn't so in danger of caring about him as she had been. Truly eavesdropping can be very helpful when you need to hear something hurtful to nip congenial feelings in the bud.

Sesshoumaru crushed her tightly to his chest and nuzzled her neck, trying to convince himself that she wasn't some hallucination cooked up by his loneliness.

Aki brushed him off. She didn't want him to hold her still. Her blood still raged for activity. Besides, comforting Sesshoumaru was too much like breaking her promise. So without further explanation or even a single word from her, Aki turned and stalked back the way she had come.

Sesshoumaru took a few minutes to go from confusedly hurt to angry and lesser feelings of curiosity. He was angry that she'd brushed him off. She was his _mate_. And she'd left without saying anything. He was curious as to what had happened to make her call upon the changes that were so painful and despised. He knew she hated looking like a demon and yet she'd shown up out of nowhere looking just like one. And wounded.

Wounded? Sesshoumaru took off after her prepared to heal and comfort his mate and to demand an explanation for her previous disappearance.

The rest followed after him in curiosity and a desire to "help" Sesshoumaru and his delinquent mate sort out their problems.

It didn't take them long to reach the ruined village, the smell of death having long since reached them. The first sight of the carnage had Kagome turning a little green around the edges.

Aki ignored them and kept walking into the village while Inuyasha and company stayed on the fringes. She did not care what they did so long as they didn't get in the way of her task.

Only Sesshoumaru followed her through the wrecked bodies that were strewn everywhere. He could see what had happened here and he looked to Aki as she approached the epicenter of the carnage. She'd been too late to save them.

Sesshoumaru watched as she ducked into a largish building backed into the solid rock wall to the side of the road. Before he got much closer she emerged carrying a small bundle of bloody rags that she placed on the ground some distance in front of the shrine. She stood back up and reentered the building.

Sesshoumaru moved to inspect the bundle suddenly noticing how the villagers lay in attempted protection of this place and whatever was inside. His mate reemerged and this time it was obvious what she carried. His eyes widened with the sudden realization that both bundles had been the ruined remains of children. Again she set the child to earth, laying it out to rest.

Sesshoumaru decided to help her, thinking that the sooner this was taken care of the sooner he could get her to answer his questions. He moved to take her latest "bundle" from her.

"Don't touch!" she growled at him ferally. Sesshoumaru was taken aback by her behavior. It was quite plain to him that she had meant he was not to touch _her_. He stepped into the shrine and was astonished by the sheer number of children inside.

Quickly he moved to pick up one of the larger, older children. Sesshoumaru took the child out to the others and returned to help his mate. Through it all Aki made certain he never touched her. He didn't even brush her by accident as he'd begun to hope for.

They finished up just as the sun was beginning to lengthen the shadows. Sesshoumaru was extremely frustrated and tired. Every attempt he'd made to draw her close had come to nothing. He was losing his patience. He wanted to hold her close as mates were meant to do.

He was so intent on his own internal strife he nearly missed Aki pull out the knife she'd found inside the shrine. She stood looking out at all the bodies of children and instinctively knew what to do. Aki drew the sharp blade across the skin of her arm. As the blood welled she allowed it to spill onto the ground scorching it.

"Aki what are you doing!" Sango cried, drawing attention to the blood dripping on the soil.

The bleeding female ignored all the commotion, preferring instead to focus on the circle she was marking out in blood around the bodies they had removed from the shrine. Everyone was too worried about the blood to notice Aki mumbling words with each step she took. When she finished walking her circuit she shouted an intelligible word and the ground moved disconcertingly in the circle. When the dust settled and all movement stopped, the bodies were properly buried under individual mounds and Aki was collapsed in a sitting position facing the center.

Aki refused to move from that spot. Kagome was forced to tend the former English tutor's wounds right there.

Inuyasha tried to coax her into moving away to eat something, Rin and Shippou tried to get her interested in their play, Sesshoumaru attempted to pull her away so she could rest, but Aki wouldn't budge. Neither would she talk with Miroku and Sango. She couldn't be conduced into looking away from the circle of dead that she kept vigil over, which everyone thought was rather strange considering she didn't know any of the deceased.

Eventually they gave up trying to get Aki to move and decided to simply clean up a place for them to stay nearby. The shrine building was declared in the best shape. (Mainly it was the size of the building that was the deciding factor. It was much easier just to clean out one building for them all to share than several to house them as Sesshoumaru's party wasn't leaving and neither was Inuyasha's group.) It was also the closest and most defendable building in the village what with being nestled in the crook of a shallow cave limiting the approach somewhat.

They puzzled over Aki's strange behavior while they worked, cooked their meal, and eventually settled down to sleep.

It was past midnight when Sesshoumaru finally gave up trying to sleep. It was all but impossible to sleep without Aki and he'd been suffering for it since she'd deserted their mating contract. In truth, this wasn't uncommon, this inability to sleep without the other half of a mating contract. The bindings were subtle and hardly noticeable so long as the two were together, but separate, it could be rather more than slightly annoying. His sleep would've been uneasy and pretty elusive without the added worry of just what Aki thought she was doing holding vigil over a bunch of strange dead children and in bad shape herself as well.

The fact that his situation was as odd as it was made him too wound up to even _want_ to try and fake sleep just to uphold the illusion that he wasn't suffering from Aki's weird behavior. And since he couldn't sleep and couldn't even find any semblance of peace to help him just sit still where he was, he decided to go glare at the cause for his current discomfort.

Aki was easily viewable from the porch jutting off the front of the shrine. It was part of why it was chosen, but then this area was within sight of just about everywhere in the settlement. Her back was to him and she was gazing into the swirling fog developing inside the circle she'd carved into the ground with her blood.

Bits of light seemed to coalesce within the circle and Sesshoumaru rubbed his sleep-deprived eyes, surely he had not seen… He looked again to find the previously empty circle suddenly very full of pale inhabitants. The milky figures inside seemed to be pointedly fixed on his mate. They could not leave the confines of her blood though, he noted with relief, they were not a threat. Now if she were to take it into her head to enter that circle…

Before Sesshoumaru had even finished the thought he was halfway to the circle from the shrine. Aki was weird after all; she might do something like that and have a dementedly logical explanation for it.

Slowly he realized she wasn't moving, wasn't planning on moving. She was just talking to the tallest ghost in the circle with a rather regretful note in her voice. He was so relieved that he almost didn't catch all of the conversation.

"I'm so sorry!" Aki's voice was soft and tired. "I should've come faster. I should've been here to keep you from dieing!" She was making no sense, Sesshoumaru noted with alarm.

"We're lucky you came at all," the ghost of the shrine's priest attempted to soothe her. "You could not have known."

Aki shot to her feet, intending to protest his words and accidentally fell against the circle at the movement. The power of the circle arced over her skin, drawing her wings from wherever she hid them to help balance her.

"Shoko-sama," one of the ghost children gasped at the sight. "It's her! She came! She really came!" the surprised frenzy rippled through the children crowded in the confining circle. Apparently there was more going on here than either Sesshoumaru or Aki knew.

Aki looked inquisitively at the priest for explanation. The ghost priest attempted to cough before realizing he was a ghost and couldn't do it. "The children have all been having the same recurring dream," he tried to explained. "They claim that our patron god comes to them and predicts the coming of a winged stranger. They seem to believe you are the stranger spoken of."

Aki blinked owlishly at him.

"She also told us what the stranger would look like," one of the older boys declared firmly. He looked at Aki outside of the circle. "I'm Sou," he identified himself. "Most of us have been expecting you. You're everything I dreamed you were."

"Stupid Sou!" a slightly younger boy teased him. "Haku," he pointed to himself before he continued. "We all had the same dream excepting Azusa, hers was different."

"Yes, it was. Speaking of her, where is she?" Shoko-sama asked suddenly aware that the little girl was not among the children around him.

"She's right where we left her," Haku declared.

"Probably too afraid to come out," another child giggled instigating the rest of the group joining in and declaring Azusa to be everything from a coward to a flightless bird of little courage.

"Oh, as if none of you would be scared in her place," Haku hollered over the noise. "Azu-chan, you can come out now."

"Azusa-chan, it's safe now," the priest called as well.

Aki heard something behind her and whirled around, causing her shaking, exhausted knees to buckle underneath her. She ignored her abrupt gravity induced meeting with the ground, focusing instead on the sudden movement she'd detected under the porch of the shrine.

"Come on, Azu-chan," Haku cooed soothingly. "Look, she's here. The one from our dreams," he continued coaxingly. "You don't want to miss her do you?"

Aki gasped and Sesshoumaru turned to the side wondering what had caused the reaction. Peeking out from the dark space between the earth and the level of the shrine floor was a fairly dirty and small human hand. He started when he realized there was an entire living body attached to it crawling from that impossibly tiny space. The movement was slow and tired. He turned back to Aki and found her raptly fixed on that small movement.

"Good gracious!" Shoko huffed, "How'd she get under there?"

"I found it a couple days ago," Haku murmured. "We were checking it out when that bad guy showed up." The ghost boy shrugged, "She was already inside when you started ushering us into the shrine."

"What were you doing playing there?" the priest inquired, maintaining his calm demeanor.

"Azu-chan hid something there," Sou replied. "We were trying to retrieve it."

"You were harassing her for it you mean," Haku snorted.

"Shut up!" Sou growled menacingly.

"There you are Azu-chan," Haku stated like he'd been searching for her.

"H-haku?" Azusa asked in a small voice. He just smiled and bobbed his head. Her eyes were riveted to the crowd inside the circle. They were all there, her playmates, even the bullies. Like any child of the feudal age she had a healthy fear of strangers, ghosts, and demons.

Azusa would've bolted, would've dug back into her little hiding place had her eyes not alighted on Aki and her clearly visible wings. Tears sprang into her little eyes as she raced full tilt at the exhausted former English tutor.

"Oh," the girl sobbed as she clung to Aki. Azusa buried her head against the shoulder that presented itself and cried out her fear and anguish.

Aki wrapped her arms around the little girl and held on, despite the fatigued shaking of her limbs. Someone needed her; someone was in pain. Sleep would simply have to wait.

Aki rested a careful kiss on the child's head after the little girl eventually cried herself to sleep.

Haku called to her quietly, "Would you take care of her? She needs somebody and we can't help her," the ghost looked over his friend sadly. "Please make sure she's okay for a while?"

The ex-english tutor, almost full youkai, accidental mate to Sesshoumaru, lord of the Western lands, merely nodded in response. There really hadn't been a need to ask. Aki would've made certain the girl found her way to somewhere safe to live, where she would always be cared for and looked after. And quite probably, somewhere Aki could check in on her often.

"But that's for later concern," the priest declared. "First you should rest." Aki made as if to protest when he cut her off. "One cannot live on air alone, and from the look of you it seems you have been for much too long. You are tired and starved," he looked her over critically. "You're too thin and exhausted. Stay here, rest before moving forward."

"There is no need…" Aki growled as a beginning before Shoko reached out a ghostly finger and touched it to the back of Aki's head where it leaned against the barrier of the circle. She abruptly fell unconscious.

"Sometimes it is bad for your health to be so stubborn," the priest murmured. Shoko raised his piercing eyes to the audience standing beyond the woman and child. Sesshoumaru stood growling angrily at the already dead priest. The children shivered fearfully around him as he addressed the woman's…mate? "She's just asleep," Shoko attempted to placate the demon.

"Baka," a gruff voice sounded from the shrine entrance. "You shouldn't have touched her," Inuyasha was also growling.

"Can we please argue about should've's and Shouldn't've's some other time? Azusa and the winged one are still sitting in damp clothes in the middle of the night!" Haku hissed at them. Adults! Ugh!

Both inu males and the priest started guiltily. The boy did have a point.

Before any of the males could move, Sango and Kagome were out attempting to pry Aki's arms from around the little girl. "Ready, Kagome?" Sango asked, waiting to go into action.

"Ready!" Kagome responded, focusing on her task. "On three. One, two, Threeee!" and with a great flourish of movement and a soft thump as Kagome fell back all of a sudden at the lack of resistance, Aki and Azusa were separated. "Ugh!" Kagome grunted as she moved to stand while holding the little girl.

"Kagome-chan, you got her?" Sango asked quietly from the other side of Aki. She was holding Aki up gently.

"Yep, I got her, I got her," Kagome grumbled. Azusa stirred a little before settling in Kagome's arms.

"Okay then, you get her inside," Sango said needlessly.

"On my way," the sometime miko called back. Well at least she would've been if a certain Hanyou hadn't gotten in the way. "Move, stupid!" she growled at the dog boy in her way.

"Give her here," Inuyasha growled back. "You're gonna drop her!" He moved as if to take the child and Kagome shoved him away with a growl of her own. He was stunned for a moment before his mouth got the better of him. "Feh!" he began arrogantly, "I was only trying to make sure you didn't hurt her because you're so weak." Right after he said it, Inuyasha knew he shouldn't have.

"Inuyasha!" her eyes flamed at him. "Osuwari!" Everyone's favorite hanyou then had an abruptly violent encounter with Earth. They have _got_ to stop meeting like this.

Sango shook her head and looked on as Kagome huffed her way into the extremely large shrine. She then bent to attend to Aki's unconsciously limp form.

Almost immediately after Kagome disappeared Inuyasha began his grumbled conversation with the ground. Unfortunately for him, she was merely out of sight, not deaf. Moreover it would be quite a while longer before Inuyasha could be out of range for everyone's favorite spell. "Osuwari" glued him to the ground for the second time.

"Argh!" Inuyasha yelled before he fell silent, to wait for the spell to rub off. Thus he was quiet enough and definitely present when Sango first noticed the youkai hovering at her elbow. Needless to say, she was thoroughly startled.

"Geez," Sango jumped and placed a free hand over her speeding heart. "Don't DO that! Sesshoumaru really!"

"Are they related or something?" the forgotten Haku asked. "They seriously don't know how to work with girls."

"Hush Haku," Shoko tried to subdue the boy. But the dead have no need for self-preservation.

"I mean really, it's not that hard," Haku continued, full steam ahead. "You cheer them up when they cry, apologize when you're wrong, and keep your mouth shut the rest of the time." He rolled his eyes; it was simple. "I'm eight years old and I know that!"

Both brothers growled at him in annoyance. Sango merely chuckled, "I like it, all it needs are a few amendments it would be a beneficial policy for males of all ages!" the girls in the circle giggled at him. Haku gave off a ghostly blush while Shoko simply sighed.

"Can you please settle before the lady wakes up to all your noise?" Shoko scolded them gently. This was not his day, er night. True darkness was slowly giving way to false dawn and the mists were starting to disperse. "I had a bit more advice to relate and our time is growing short."

It took them a few minutes, but they finally quieted down. Well except for the low grumbles given off by Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha. Shoko cleared his throat, and then realized there was no point.

Sango, began to get impatient, Aki was still wearing dew damp clothes and would probably be shivering if her poor body wasn't so exhausted. "Priest I don't mean to be rude, but we're not getting any younger."

"Ah, right!" he seemed to flush a little. "Those two," he began deliberately, "need to stay here for at least a week." And immediately protest erupted from the peanut gallery consisting of Dog boy and rightey.

Sango glared them both into silence, or at least a quiet resembling silence. "Is there a reason for this, Shoko-sama? Is there something wrong with the little girl?"

"No, Azusa's fine. A little Shaken up, a bit hungry and tired, but nothing serious," Shoko quickly reassured Sango. "I merely meant that the young lady there is in desperate need of careful attention. Take a good look at her. She's too thin just for a start. She looks as though she hasn't eaten in weeks!"

"That's because she hasn't eaten in weeks," another voice piped up behind them. The three of them not facing that direction turned to see a very worried looking familiar ghost. "She hasn't stopped long enough to eat.'

Shoko nodded, "which explains much of the rest of her problems that I've observed. She'll need a great deal of care and rest to get back to where her health should be. As she is now, she's too weak to heal even her minor wounds."

Sesshoumaru turned his sharp eyes to his unconscious mate and realized that none of her wounds had closed. She really was in bad shape. A worried growl began deep in his chest, so low even his own ears could barely hear it even as it shook his body with intensity.

"Which is why I'm talking to you," Shoko continued, "You're going to need to make sure she stays at least a week. I'd say more, but by then it would be out of your hands," the dead priest sighed.

"You got that right!" Fred spoke up. "Hell! We'll be lucky if we can keep her here the entire week as it is!" Fred grumbled. "Anyway, lets wrap this up."

"You need to get that lady into some dry clothing, preferably sooner rather than later. Oh, and I suggest you avoid letting anyone other than the girls wake up Azusa. If she were to scream or cry out I doubt very much that you could stop our friend from rushing to her side immediately," the ghost advised.

Sango nodded, not too surprised by the advice. She leaned down and removed the ever-present bottomless seeming shoulder bag from Aki. She draped it across her own should and took a moment to wonder how the hell one could carry _such_ a heavy bag all the time. Dismissing it, Sango knelt to collect the other woman in her arms.

A threatening growl stopped her movement.

Sango glanced over at the growling dog demon and swallowed. She should've seen this coming. Sesshoumaru, as Aki's mate, would want to be the one to tend to her. Unfortunately his being one limb short sort of put a crimp in his abilities to carry Aki without causing further injury. ON top of all that, Sesshoumaru's instincts were so close to the surface right now there was no reasoning with him.

So Inuyasha picked an argument with him. It was a superficial, run-of-the-mill typical Inuyasha/Sesshoumaru argument, nothing particularly stellar, but hopefully distracting enough for Sango to pick Aki up without further hindrance.

It wasn't. Sesshoumaru glared at Sango. "Step away from my mate wench!"

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Kagome cried newly returned from settling Azusa with Shippou and Rin. She'd been curious as to why no one else had come in after her. Now she was simply annoyed. "Really guys are so immature!"

"Butt out!"

"I will not! You're all being stupid!" Kagome huffed. "While you're all happily standing around arguing about stupid stuff, Aki's getting sick!"

Sango bent to pick up Aki under cover of this new distraction and was once again stopped by Sesshoumaru, this time with a clawed hand upon her wrist. She looked up into his golden eyes sympathetically, "You can't carry her as you are without giving her further injury. So unless you want Inuyasha or Miroku to do it, let me help you take care of Aki.'

The dog demon simply yanked her away from his mate. Some rational part of his mind wondered at how close to the surface his instincts were, how strong they'd become.

"And we're back where we started," Sou rolled his eyes as Aki softly fell to the ground. The ghosts looked on as a knockdown, drag-out argument ensued.

In the middle of all this, a pair of tired eyes opened quietly. She stared at the chaos surrounding her wearily. She was tired and cold, with her mind cushioned in the cottony feel of exhausted detachment.

"Aki-sama," a small voice called next to her ear. She turned her head slowly, not really caring if there was someone there or not. "I'm sorry they woke you up," Haku sympathized. "I don't think this argument is going to end until your mate can carry you inside and he can't do that with only one arm."

Aki nodded tiredly, she may not care one way or the other, really, but obviously the inu youkai did. And Sesshoumaru could be insanely stubborn about some things.

"I may be able to remedy that," Haku informed her. "You might have noticed I'm not like the other kids, but I need a link to the outside." He continued quietly, "if you could press your hand against the outside of the barrier, I should be able to fix this."

Aki shifted her hand slowly, finding herself panting from the minor effort. She was obviously more exhausted than she thought. Eventually she managed to press the outside edge of her hand against the circle just above the ground.

Haku brushed his translucent fingers along the contact area. The circle would cause his power to arc. If he aimed it right it would hit the dog demon and no one else. Just a little bit to the left and…there!

Haku's power arced through the air graceful as lightning. And about as gentle. "Argh!" the inu youkai bellowed. The ghost boy quickly broke contact, just because the dog demon couldn't kill him now, didn't mean anything.

"Phoenix," Aki mumbled as she relaxed and closed her eyes. Something told her she'd be seeing Haku again.

"What the hell!" Inuyasha jumped into a fighting stance.

"Sorry, my fault," Haku apologized. "I just thought it better to end the argument now, before Aki gets sick." He explained sheepishly.

"You thought zapping Sesshoumaru would resolve the argument?" Kagome asked incredulously.

Everybody looked dumfounded, except Inuyasha who couldn't help but snicker at his Half brother's misfortune. Sesshoumaru, being thoroughly pissed at getting zapped by a ghost he couldn't kill, promptly threw a solid punch into dog boy's nose with the arm that wasn't there before.

Inuyasha went down and the rest of the party blinked. Sesshoumaru now had two arms! The day was saved! Now he could carry his mate into the shrine himself and nobody could argue to the contrary.

Sango rolled her eyes, "Fine then, but I'm still helping. Your instincts are so high strung right now it's not safe for you to change her clothes." Sesshoumaru considered her for a moment before nodding. She was right, much as he hated to admit it.

Sesshoumaru turned to the shrine carrying his precious burden, trailing Sango. Miroku was just walking out as they moved inside, and he, of course, couldn't miss the opportunity to check Sango's behind. She dealt with it the normal way and continued to follow after Sesshoumaru.

The shrine was set up with a large common area and two smaller rooms accessed by two discreetly placed halls. The girls had taken one of the rooms with the children and Sesshoumaru had claimed the other, leaving Miroku and Inuyasha to sleep in the main room rather than staying too close to the western lord. This is where Sesshoumaru carried Aki

Sango cleared her throat discreetly, "um, why don't you try to find Aki something to eat? We'll need to feed her something when she wakes up." Sesshoumaru's blood rebelled at him leaving Aki, but he had no choice, he'd already agreed to allow Sango to change her clothes. Besides, Sango was right, Aki needed food and he would need time to calm down. If he lost control, it was Aki who would suffer for it.

It took a painful amount of will power to draw himself from his grip on Aki's body. Sango gave him an encouraging smile as she rummaged through Aki's bag. He was annoyed by how long it took him to finally let go. Once he got moving he found it easier to continue, not easy, just easier than the first bit.

He made it to the big room just as Miroku and Kagome came in from outside. Sesshoumaru found he couldn't move any further. Miroku looked at him quizzically before seeming to decipher a reason, or more likely reasons for his presence.

"Food for Aki?" the monk asked and Sesshoumaru nodded. Miroku sighed in thought, "We'll have to be careful what we give her, and she hasn't eaten in so long her stomach has probably forgotten what to do with food." He tapped his chin, an annoyingly human habit. "It'll have to be simple and somewhat bland. We also need to watch how much we give her as well."

"First thing's first, keep a steady supply of water at hand," Kagome broke in. "She's probably dehydrated and will need it. Besides, it won't hurt anything." She cocked her head to the side. "As for food, I have some crackers. They're not much, but they do help settle your stomach. We'd probably do well to put them in broth to soften them up though."

"Good idea Kagome," Miroku smiled. "Do we have anything to make broth with?"

"Not right on hand, but she's likely to sleep a while. I can send Inuyasha to hunt us up something to make stew with. We also have whatever's in the village since Shoko-sama suggested we take what we need."

"Ah yes," Miroku nodded again. "But first lets get some water." Kagome nodded in answer and they both latched onto Sesshoumaru and dragged him out to hunt up some water.

Luck was with him and they had no further than ten feet to find a rain bucket full of water to draw from, though he was willing to drown them both regardless of how quick the errand turned out to be. Kagome handed him a bottle to fill, which he did quickly before rushing back to the shrine and prowling across the floor of the shrine to his destination.

Sango had just finished with Aki when he slid open the door and walked in. The sight of Aki, looking so warm and dry, and in his shirt that Tama had given her, had him instantly feeling better. Sango snuck out so quietly he almost didn't get the chance to thank her.

Sesshoumaru gracefully settled next to his sleeping mate, studying her features. It had been too long since he'd been alone with her like this. He leaned over her wondering why she wasn't recovering more quickly now that he was with her. He moved to hover above her in the next breath, drawing just a bit closer. Aki should be able to draw strength from him through the mark, unless it was gone.

He turned her head to study the area of skin he had marked. The mark was still there; he rubbed his thumb over it absently, delighting in the shiver that ran down her body in response.

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at the mark. Something was blocking it, obstructing the flow of energies. It was her! She was blocking it! Sesshoumaru's confusion flared into anger. How dare she! How dare she even try to deny him!

His eyes filmed over with red. He could certainly see to that. Sesshoumaru leaned in, aligning his teeth with the mark and bit down, hard.

She was his, pure and simple. His teeth sank in until he put a hole in her blockade, then poured so much energy through it the barrier was torn away.

He collapsed over her, lapping at the blood he'd spilled as he curtailed the flow of energy. He had to be the one to look after her, and he couldn't do that if he was as drained as she was.

Taking a deep steadying breath, Sesshoumaru rubbed his cheek over her shoulder finally feeling the pull of sleep that was so elusive the night before. He slowly slipped into the invisible world of dreams ready to confront her there with this and other behavior he had issue with.


	2. Hot Springs and Tickle Fights

I felt like posting early because I have Wednesday off and not thursday. Maybe I should just start posting on Wednesday instead as I always seem to have it off.

Heehee,so what did you really think of that last chapter?

A lot happens in this chapter, mainly because Aki can't sit still like she's supposed to. Sesshoumaru certainly isn't happy about the situation, but he can't seem to get the best of Aki in an argument, let alone the rest of her life. Azusa and Rin have a bit of fun at Inuyasha's expense and Fred instigates another intense situation.

Fred has got to be one of the awesomest characters ever! I don't have to write him into every chapter, he's a fount of information when he wants to be and has absolutely no reason to fear anything thereby making him completely outrageous in the face of threat and danger. How many other characters are like that? I mean that aren't seriously crazy or delusional?

I'm certainly glad I can claim him, I'd hate to think how unreasonably rambuncious he'd be if he was one of Rumiko Takahashi's like the rest of those crazy characters that aren't mine.

**Hot Springs and Tickle Fights**

_Sesshoumaru opened his eyes slowly._

_There was the tree he'd come to associate with his dreams shared with Aki. It was always apparent, whatever their dream and he wondered if that was significant. He also wondered which of them it was that brought it and the sunshine, or if it took the both of them make it appear. Its branches framed the windows of memory from them both._

_He supposed he could find out everything he'd ever wanted to know about his mate by simply watching what the tree depicted, but he would never do it that way. Not when she was present, and that was the only time the tree offered up its secret treasures of her. Speaking of which, Aki should be around here somewhere._

_Sesshoumaru found Aki on the other side of the tree, curled into a ball with her arms wrapped around her legs and her head down hiding her face. As he watched, her shoulder shook silently as if she cried. The wind blew her hair softly, exposing her neck and he was reminded of a few issues that needed to be attended to. She was his mate, Damnit!_

_Sesshoumaru reached out a clawed hand to grasp her should firmly. Aki looked up quickly, tears streaming down her delicate face. "What have you done?" she cried. "What have you done, Sess?" She always called him that here. She never did it anywhere else. He wasn't sure if he liked that or not._

_"What do you mean 'What have I done'? What have you done, my mate?" he growled, emphasizing the last two words. He was not in the wrong; she's the one who'd been trying to block him out, not the other way around. "You're the one who left, not I," he gave voice to his silent pain._

_"Yes, and I'll leave again," she growled back impetuously. "I have promises to keep."_

_"Damnit, bitch! You're my mate!"_

_"Pfffftttt! Mate or not, I belong to myself first and foremost!"_

_"What about your promises to me…"_

_"Don't even try that, stupid! I don't ever remember being asked for any promises let alone making them!"_

_"You're my mate, woman! Forev-"_

_"Hah! Don't try to tell me I promised you forever!" she glowered at him, while he tried to hide his shock. Weren't females always the ones that demanded romantic notions like 'forever'? "I highly doubt I would ever promise something I don't believe in!"_

_What did she mean? How can one not believe in forever?_

_"Nothing lasts forever, Sess. Even I know that," she bowed her head again, hiding her face form him. He didn't like that she did that. Why should she hide her tears from him, for there was no one else here to hide them from? "Sess, how old are you?"_

_He blinked at her with surprise. How the hell did she jump subject like that? "Where on Earth did that question come from?"_

_She shrugged, "It's just a question."_

_"I'm not sure."_

_"You're not sure how old you are?" she stared at him in disbelief._

_"No, I'm not sure that it's just a question," he smirked. No reason to let her know he really wasn't sure how old he was._

_"Well what else could it be?" she demanded._

_"A ploy, a distraction." He replied absently, brushing her hair away from her face tenderly._

_She batted his hand away, "Seriously, how old are you?" she asked again._

_He growled, both at the question and at being pushed away. "What is so important about my age that you won't let it go?"_

_"Just answer the question, Sesshoumaru."_

_"Age is unimportant," he declared in frustration._

_"Then why are you avoiding the question?"_

_"I'm not avoiding the question."_

_"You still haven't answered either."_

_She wasn't going to let this go, he realized. Well he supposed he was older than Inuyasha and Inuyasha was about 200. And she didn't say he couldn't be vague. "Over 200 years old," he growled._

_"I was right, you're too old."_

_"What? What are you talking about?"_

_"You're too old for me," she declared cheerfully. This was not something he wanted to hear. _

_"I am not." She was not going to use something so flimsy as age to get out of being his mate. He wouldn't allow it._

_"Sure you are," she retorted tartly._

_"And how old are you?"_

_"Twenty." Dear god! She was just a baby. She shouldn't even be this tall yet. In the normal progress of youkai maturation she shouldn't have even learned how to defend herself yet._

_"You have got to be kidding."_

_"I'm not."_

_"You're too tall to be twenty."_

_"That's what I thought, but Fred says my birth parents were tall. I was perfectly happy being as short as my adoptive family."_

_"What?" He blinked._

_Aki laughed, "I was apparently human, up until a few months ago."_

_So she truly was that young. Fine, he decided, that obviously didn't mean much considering she was a fully matured adult female. That was enough for him, but he certainly was feeling older than he should be. He was still considered young by youkai standards._

_"Aki," he growled. "You are my mate, and you will continue to be my mate regardless of our respective ages." And he grabbed her up to hold in his arms. He needed this closeness he needed all of his senses to reassure him that she was really there._

_"Sess, what are you doing?" she whispered. Much as she tried to deny it, she had missed him greatly, and not just because of the nightmares. Her demon blood cried out for his warmth, and she was slowly losing the argument. A memory flashed behind her eyes, a memory of him talking to someone else, not knowing she could hear. A memory of him belittling his apparent attachment to her. Her eyes teared up and hardened, her armor back in place. Aki brushed him off and withdrew from his grasp. _

_Sesshoumaru was stunned. Just a moment ago it looked as though Aki was giving in, accepting her roll as his mate. In a flash, it was gone. To say he was frustrated would be an understatement. Now she stood outside his reach, not even facing him. "What's the matter?" he demanded._

_"Nothing," she answered without bothering to turn. _

_"Aki, Damnit! Talk to me!" he demanded._

_"I thought I was." She quipped._

_That shut him up. Master of argument he wasn't. "Aki I missed you!" he admitted sadly._

_She wanted to tell him how much she missed him too, how much she missed their dreams, but she had promises to keep. Promises that didn't leave her free to stay. Staying meant danger to those around her. Staying meant she would start to care. Staying meant her curse would rise up to destroy her again. None of them deserved that, and this one certainly wasn't worth her heart if she meant so little. She turned around to look at him. "You'll live," she said quietly._

_Sesshoumaru stared at her, searching her face for any indication as to what she meant. He found nothing. No remorse or guilt. No love or hate. There was nothing, her usually expressive eyes were empty of emotion. She was hiding behind an empty mask, distancing herself from everything, including him._

_If Aki was under the impression that she could block him out, she was sorely mistaken. And Sesshoumaru was more than willing to point out her misconception. A mischievous grin graced his sculpted features._

_If Aki felt any shock or surprise at his sudden change in expression she hid it really well. Desperate times call for desperate measures… Sesshoumaru silently made a mental note to confront her about the other stuff at a later date, as further discussion now would simply allow her to slip farther inside her walls. Now what would be the best method to force her from her emotionless mask?_

_There was a certain game often played with children that almost always ended in fitful bursts of laughter, he'd always wanted to try it._

_But first Sesshoumaru took a step towards Aki._

_She took a step back. Sesshoumaru took another step forward and Aki reciprocated._

_Sesshoumaru paused; this was getting him nowhere. This called for some strategical maneuvering. He stepped to the side. When no resulting movement answered this advance he solidified his plan of attack._

_Sesshoumaru took two and a half careful steps to the side, placing his mate directly between him and the tree, careful not to betray anything of his confidence or planning. Aki watched him blankly; he was up to something. She wasn't sure how she knew it, his smirk certainly never changed. His eyes were almost always full of mischief when he glanced her way. But she was certain he was up to something._

_Sesshoumaru took one huge step forward; varying his step size as if testing the limits of their game. Aki answered it in kind. His plan was working! It took all of his control not to grin those last few steps that would press Aki to the tree._

_Aki kept backing up; absolutely certain he was trying something. She never let her blank face slip though, her face revealed nothing of her confusion or suspicion. It wasn't until she moved to step back and crashed into the tree that she realized her error. By then, Sesshoumaru had her pinned to the tree._

_"Nowhere else to retreat, my mate," Sesshoumaru grinned, triumph shining in his eyes._

_She growled in anger and frustration, "I am not a piece of property you jackass."_

_Sesshoumaru was in too good a mood to bother being upset by her outburst. Instead he initiated the game and laughter began to fill the space sheltered by the tree's branches. He soon found that the tables were frequently turned back and forth in…_

…_a tickle fight_

Sesshoumaru woke up first, still lying over a much healthier looking Aki. He rubbed his cheek along the under side of her jaw. It'd been too long since he'd last awakened to his sleeping mate. He nuzzled her neck affectionately, taking deep soothing breaths.

He stilled as he detected a whiff of some faint scent. It was subtle and hardly detectable under the scent of dirt and blood, but it was there, tantalizing the very edge of his senses. It smelled of earth and trees, wilderness and freedom, of rain, wind and life. Aki sighed quietly in her sleep and Sesshoumaru finally realized just what the scent was. It was her scent! This incredibly elusive and subtle scent was that of his mate!

Aki's scent was a pleasant blend of all the scents one would normally find in most of the environments he had so far found her in. It easily got lost in the scents around her because it held no element that didn't belong in that environment. Sesshoumaru took a deep breath savoring and memorizing this valuable piece of sensory information. The inu youkai suddenly felt a hundred times better. Her scent would still be impossible to track, but at least he wouldn't feel like he was chasing a dream, a hallucination anymore.

Sesshoumaru heaved a contented sigh before moving to disentangle himself from Aki, a task made terribly difficult by her unconscious grip on his person. It almost made him smile, she may push him away constantly while she was awake, but in her sleep she clung to him rather satisfactorily.

Aki stirred under him, briefly tightening her hold on him. She nuzzled his neck and inhaled deeply of his scent before relaxing with a contented smile. His scent brought her comfort, for some reason, Sesshoumaru felt inordinately proud of himself.

The sun was making itself known in the tiny room, spilling its light across the floor. Judging by the slant of it, they'd slept a good portion of the day away. Aki cracked a lazy eye open and smiled sleepily at him. He always loved watching her wake up. Sesshoumaru never could resist answering her smile in kind.

Aki gave a huge yawn and stretched catlike as he watched in amusement. He could feel the muscles move under her skin where they touched. His mate flashed him a mischievous look under her lashes.

"Are you really that ticklish?" she asked him with a grin. They had discovered that while Aki was ticklish enough to excite the desired reaction in a tickle fest, Sesshoumaru was doubly so, much to his chagrin. And lo, if she turned her experienced fingers on him while they were awake.

"No!" Sesshoumaru's expression turned frantic. "I…Aki, no!" her grin widened. It was one thing to be licked utterly and completely by a girl barely a fraction of his age while they were alone in a shared dream; it was another thing completely for it to happen while they were awake. Evasive Maneuvers!

Too late! Suddenly her tired and weak fingers had found his sensitive and incredibly exposed side. Sesshoumaru bit his lip to stem the tide of uncontrollable laughter that bubbled up in his throat.

"Being stubborn are we?" Aki chuckled up at him.

It may not seem like it now, but Aki was an experienced tickle master. She'd grown up in a loving healthy family where tickling often occurred, often for no reason. There were ways to break the stubborn. And did she ever know how to do it.

Her knowledgeable fingers danced over his skin to new more sensitive areas recently left unguarded by his attempts to end her attack on his side. He bit down harder on his lip, actually drawing blood with one of his fangs.

"Aw," she smirked teasingly, "Looks like you hurt yourself."

Sesshoumaru tried to growl low in his throat, but it came out more of a whine. He wasn't getting enough air to growl properly. He'd had enough of this. He should be the one to have her at the disadvantage, not the other way around. After all, he did have her pinned to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, Sesshoumaru moved so that he had her attacking hands pinned under his knees while he pinned her down and attacked her sides with his own fingers. He flashed her a triumphant glance when her struggles to break free were proven useless.

Unlike Sesshoumaru, Aki did not try to bite back her laughter. It had been too long since she'd last had a tickle fight. She would not ruin it with the false pretenses of not feeling ticklish. She was tired of not feeling, not laughing. So now, at least for a little while, she would pretend to be a part of a family. In other words, she laughed.

Sesshoumaru allowed a joyous smile to slide over his features. Her laughter was a contagious thing, setting his senses dancing in giddy delight. It was carefree and breathy, as laughter should be. He tickled her until she was breathless and gasping for air.

His smile turned into a tender secret as she slowly caught her breath. Aki's face was flushed by even this small exertion, leaving her features aglow with unrestrained mirth. His eyes never left hers as her chest slowly stopped heaving.

A charged silence quickly enveloped them. Sesshoumaru leaned down slowly to claim the lips of his mate. The dog demon nipped at her lower lip demanding entrance. With a soft sigh from his partner, he found his way open.

Shifting slightly to taste Aki more deeply, the fabric of her shirt silently spilled open. His clawed hands caressed her skin almost reverently, stroking bruises that had formerly been cuts. He reached his arms under her back, reveling in the feel and texture of her skin as he raised her up to press against his chest. Never once did he break off that kiss, Sesshoumaru didn't want to hear her protests, didn't want to give her the chance to recollect her misguided notions and push him away.

Sesshoumaru needed this contact; he needed her scent wrapped around him. What's more, he was finding that just holding her wasn't proving to be enough.

"Kyaa!" a small feminine voice screamed out in fright, and Sesshoumaru found himself holding empty air. Aki had abandoned him once again.

He growled in frustration and upset. Aki shouldn't be up and about yet. He sighed, Time to track her down and see about getting her back to resting properly. Sesshoumaru was certain that if his hair wasn't already silver, he'd be going gray as time wore on. Aki's lack of any sense of self-preservation was proving more than a little troublesome.

Poor Azusa, the source of the scream, had been having a pretty okay day. She had gotten to sleep in quite awhile and waken to find two new playmates to befriend. She had been fed delicious food, washed up and gotten a fresh change of clothes and was feeling pretty pleased with the world around her, or as pleased as any little girl in her situation could be.

She'd quickly made friends with every member of Kagome and Inuyasha's group and Rin and Azusa quickly agreed that Inuyasha was just a big kid that needed to be prettified with flowers to improve his mood. In actuality, Azusa was fast coming to believe that the dog boy was her veriest favorite person in the world, regardless of Inuyasha's attempts to convince her otherwise.

Not that he was allowed to be all that convincing, every time he made a real effort to dissuade the good opinion of the little girl Kagome would quickly teach him that it was a very bad idea. And if Kagome's kind cool reason didn't suffice, the ground was always there to back her up.

Inuyasha found himself almost wishing Jaken would hurry up and return with the goat demon Sesshoumaru had sent him for. He was certain that once Tama showed up, the girls would no longer be his problem.

Sango and Miroku had eventually tired of watching Inuyasha lose to the children and set to the task of hunting through the village property in search of food and goods to either use or sell. Every so often they would return to the area in front of the shrine to pause and watch the children playing or deposit some new found stash of goods.

All of which would not seem conducive to causing a little girl to scream in fright. Unfortunately, Azusa had not met Fred yet, and the ghost still hadn't developed a less startling way to meet new people. He essentially popped out at her by accident and her fright left her faster than she could really think about what she was seeing. By then it was too late.

Before anyone could blink or the sound could even begin to fade from the air, Aki was there holding the small girl and growling at everyone that moved. Despite her apparent weakness and fatigue, the almost youkai could and would move mountains if that was required to protect Azusa.

Aki glared at the people she normally would've never considered a threat, her body too drained to react on more than feral instinct. Shippou and Rin stared at the usually quiet, levelheaded some time surrogate mother that stood growling at them for breathing unable to understand the situation.

Kagome was much too startled to move. Her brain couldn't understand how Aki had suddenly appeared, seemingly out of no where when she absolutely knew the woman was supposed to be resting.

"Damn! I really need to work on coming up to people," Fred grumbled as Aki started backing into the main part of the village.

A low growl of annoyance announced the emergence of a very unhappy taiyoukai. "What the hell happened?" No use beating around the bush. He wanted to know who was responsible for this disaster and now so he could kill them properly.

"Azusa screamed…" Shippou began timidly.

"I KNOW THAT!" the stressed youkai hissed causing Shippou to squeak before hiding behind Kagome's leg.

The ninth grader snapped out of her shock in anger. Nobody yelled at Shippou like that for no reason! "Don't yell at Shippou!" she yelled at the much taller pureblooded youkai without fear or much thought for that matter. "It's completely Fred's fault!"

Sesshoumaru was taken aback. A worthless human girl was bold enough to correct him, Lord of the western lands? Surely not.

Suddenly a rabid bark sounded from down the road in the village. Sango and Miroku had heard the commotion and had been heading towards the shrine only to find themselves on the receiving end of Aki's most lethal glare. Inuyasha and Kagome came running, afraid to leave the two humans alone with Aki in her state.

"Aki-sama," a slightly confused little girl called to her new guardian. "Aki-sama," she called again when the first recitation failed to have the desired effect.

Aki blinked slowly in silent recognition, she was so the hell not turning away from the others. They had scared Azusa and could not be trusted – for the moment.

It wasn't anything personal, in fact had Aki been stronger, less fatigued, she never would've been so suspicious of anyone, let alone people she knew desired only friendship from her. But Aki wasn't strong enough to override the autopilot of her body, and her body didn't recognize any of them as anything more than brief acquaintances because she hadn't identified anything of import with them. If she hadn't been so hesitant to become actual friends with them, they might not be in this situation, but even that was a big IF. Her instinct wasn't likely to identify with anyone who wasn't blood right now, with the sole exception of Azusa, who had triggered this reaction in the first place.

On some level, Azusa was just as confused as everybody else, but her confusion was completely drowned out by sheer embarrassment. There had been no reason to react the way she had. No one else had seemed alarmed by the ghost's sudden appearance. And now that she thought about it, Kagome had warned her about a ghost that hung out with Aki-sama most of the time. Why couldn't she have thought of all this before she'd opened her mouth and instigated all this?

"Aki-sama," Azusa called once again. "I'm alright." The protective arms holding her tightened slightly in response. "Nobody hurt me, I was just startled," the little girl flushed brightly. It felt strange for her to be pacifying a youkai older and stronger than herself. "None of them would ever hurt me, they're my friends." Aki's hold relaxed ever so slightly.

What was wrong with her! The tired woman wondered at herself. It wasn't like her to suspect everyone and everything. Aki closed her eyes and began to take huge steadying breaths, still not quite able to let go of Azusa completely.

The entire group of incredibly puzzled people held their collective breaths, each realizing on some level how easily this could've turned out badly. Of course, most of them realized it still could go thoroughly and violently painful in a matter of seconds if any of them so much as breathed wrong. Even Inuyasha had enough sense not to be offended that the only thing standing between him and imminent death was a little human girl scarcely half the size of Kagome.

The potent feeling of mortality was completely lost on the only full-blooded inu youkai of the group. Sesshoumaru's mind was much too occupied with his mate's overwhelming maternal instincts. For some reason, he was rather pleased with himself for finding such a rare motherly gem to mate. It was a thought that quickly lead to thoughts of fathering his own children on her and a deep desire to get started on that as soon as possible, meaning now.

Sesshoumaru absently took a step forward without really thinking about the consequences and suddenly found himself on the receiving end of a ferocious growl and a pair of drowning green pools of mistrust and anger. Apparently his thoughtless action had pushed her over the edge of conscious reason.

"Don't move moron!" Inuyasha growled softly and was rewarded with his own glare from the female. "Damn!"

"She almost had it too," Miroku lamented as he then received a sharp look quite similar to Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's.

Kagome shifted, unsure what to do. They were fast running out of options.

"Sango," Shippou called quietly breathing slightly easier when his short vocalization did not receive the same treatment as every word spoken before it. "I think she might let Azusa go to you."

"Why do you think that Shippou?" Azusa asked timidly.

"Because, unlike everyone else, Sango can be fully disarmed. Miroku can't be separated from his Kazaaana, Kagome can't be separated from her miko powers, Rin is too young to be any kind of protection, and the rest of us have youkai blood. Sango can protect and she can approach in an unthreatening manner, plus she also knows what it's like to lose a village," Shippou explained as everyone blinked at him in thought.

He was right; Sango was the only option open to Aki, who was quickly coming to realize that if she didn't end this situation soon she would no longer be any good to Azusa anyway.

Sango quickly removed every weapon on her person, even the ones that were hidden, hoping that this slight gesture of faith would instill just a slight amount of trust with Aki's feral side. She briefly had to silence Miroku's protests with a very speaking glance. This look alone engendered quite a bit of confidence from Aki all by itself.

With slow steady steps, Sango approached youkai and child, careful to keep her hands in full view at all times. Finally the warrior woman eased Azusa out of her youkai protector's grasp and slowly began to back away.

The moment Azusa stepped away from her, Aki's muscles seized up sending her falling to the ground quite painfully. Her body relaxed and seized yet again, causing her head to hit against something hard. Before she fell completely unconscious Aki saw the face of a familiar goat demon descending on the back of Sesshoumaru's two-headed dragon.

Sesshoumaru quickly grabbed Aki up off that ground terrified that her bump on the head had proved more dangerous than he would like. Kagome had to yank on his hair fiercely before he let her close enough to check the female over and then Tama shoved her out of the way to examine Aki herself.

"Foolish child has worn herself down to nothing so that her body has to protest it violently," Tama grumbled, disapproval thick in her voice. "If she treated her body with more care it would be strong enough to properly carry that formidably stubborn spirit of hers."

"I'm just glad the seizure is over," Kagome mumbled.

"Sure it's over, but I imagine her muscles will shake from the exertion," Tama pointed out. "And I don't even want to think about the headache that bump on the head will create for her." The goat demon sighed, "Her joints will stiffen up as well, if she doesn't either wake up and somehow find the energy to move around even briefly or we don't find some way to prevent it ourselves."

"We'll have to think of something, I think," Kagome murmured with worry. "But what?" The teenager brushed some hair from Aki's face absently. "If only we had a way to let her soak in warm water. My grandfather claims that a warm or hot bath helps to ease his aching joints when they hurt."

"That's not such a bad idea, but I don't have a bath with me," Tama muttered.

"What about a hot spring?" Azusa asked timidly.

"A hot spring would be a treat," Tama answered somewhat sarcastically.

"Is there one near here Azusa-chan?" Sango asked the little girl gently.

Azusa nodded and pointed in some vague direction. "Well, then," Kagome clapped her hands in decision. "We have our plan. Azusa will lead us to the hot spring and we'll let Aki rest in it."

"Alright then," Tama nodded, willing to follow the human's direction so long as it proved helpful. "Come then, my lord. Give us Aki. We'll see to her for now and return her to you soon."

Sesshoumaru growled unwilling to let go of his much damaged mate. Every time he let her out of his sight she wound up in worse shape than before.

Inuyasha crept up behind the stubborn youkai lord and bashed him on the head, subsequently causing Sesshoumaru's grip on Aki to loosen enough for Tama to steal her away. Inuyasha didn't expect any thanks for his service. In fact he rather expected a beat down of the most violent kind, but so long as it kept Sesshoumaru busy and helped Aki out, he was fine with that. Which is just as well because the inu youkai quickly knocked him out.

"Lead on Azusa," Sango encouraged the little girl. "Kagome could you retrieve Aki's bag before you join us? Aki might appreciate a bath while we're at it."

"Good idea," Fred nodded. "She always said she felt better when she's clean." Kagome just ignored him and headed into the shrine.

Sesshoumaru was determined that they would not leave him behind. Or at least he was until Kagome, Shippou, Rin, and Miroku convinced him he should stay.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, it would be best if you were to remain here," Miroku stated evenly. "Your instincts the way they are now, are liable to get her killed."

"She'll be fine, nothing will happen to her," Kagome offered in her best soothing voice. "Aki will be with Tama and Sango and I, and we'll protect her from harm."

"Besides, you need to stay here to keep Miroku from peeking," Shippou muttered smartly.

Miroku paled dramatically as Sesshoumaru turned a near lethal glare on him, "Shippou, I'm hurt that you would even think I would do such a thing."

The little kitsune snorted, "Not as hurt as you'll be if Sango finds you spying on us again."

Kagome sighed and offered Sesshoumaru one last reassuring look before turning to follow Shippou to the talked of hot spring. It probably wasn't a good idea to leave Inuyasha unconscious and the lecherous Miroku in the company of a high-strung Sesshoumaru, but like children learning to walk, they had to learn how to behave properly some time.


	3. Explaining Instinct

And we're back to our regularly scheduled program. heehee. Alright, this is effectively changing my schedule from posting on Thursday to Wednesday.

I have hit a bit of a road block in my writing. Nothing that will effect this part of the story, and not really the next part either, but I'm finding I've lost my focus on where I'm at in the story so I can keep writing. It happens from time to time. So, after part four there definitely will be a significant break. Actually the break could happen after this part if I don't finish typing it up. Sorry. That's the way it goes sometimes.

Don't let that detract from your enjoyment of this fic. I find some fics I just love going back and rereading over and over again. Sadly one of my favorites which hadn't even finished was taken down. But there are others to reread!

Lord knows some of the arguments between Aki, Fred and Rumiko Takahashi's characters are more than worth rereading. Fred says some of the most outrageous things and Aki out talks almost everyone most of the time. FUN!

**Explaining Instinct**

A few hours later, with the shadows beginning to lengthen, Sango and Kagome began to make their way back to the shrine with orders from Tama.

Aki's muscles had begun to shake and jump with a vengeance shortly after they'd made it to the spring, but they'd slowly subsided as Tama had managed to coax some fresh water down her throat, helping to alleviate some of her dehydration. If only they could get some food in her, they'd been on the road to replenishing and restoring her health.

"Thank goodness Tama showed up when she did," Kagome murmured to Sango. "I'm not sure what we would've done without her."

"I'm just glad Azusa knew about that hot spring," Sango replied. "It gave us an excuse to get her away from Sesshoumaru for a few hours. I suspect she wouldn't have gotten much undisturbed rest if Aki had been left in his grasp."

"She'll be alright," Azusa said fiercely grasping onto the words, "Tama-san swore that she would be alright."

Sango smiled gently, "Of course Aki will be fine. She wouldn't let something so trivial keep her down. The problem is that she has this horrible tendency to exert herself before she should, and Sesshoumaru would have compounded the problem simply by being present."

"Why does Aki run away from her mate anyway?" Shippou asked in confusion. Mates weren't supposed to avoid each other like that; even he knew that.

"I don't think Aki understands what being mates means," Sango thought out loud. "I mean, you've told me she was human for most of her life and she comes from Kagome's home where they believe youkai are simply stories told to children. Where would she have even heard about demon mating contracts, let alone learn what they mean?"

Kagome nodded in agreement, "There's that, but I think Aki has another reason to avoid emotional entanglements. According to Fred, Aki thinks she's cursed and Inuyasha says that she has good reason to think so."

"What kind of curse?" Rin asked with worry.

"Nothing for you to worry about, Rin. Aki won't let anything happen to you or Sesshoumaru," Shippou asserted firmly. "Aki's the strongest person I know, even stronger than Inuyasha," he said with great authority. "Well, at least she usually is," the kit amended remembering her current state.

Kagome grabbed Rin's hand to help her over a particularly uneven bit of ground on their way to the village. "I'm just glad Hanako's not with us," she thought out loud.

"Who?" Azusa asked.

"She's a certain rabbit youkai who has a big crush on Aki," Sango replied with an amused smile as she helped Azusa the way that Kagome had helped Rin.

"That's putting it nicely," Shippou glanced up mischievously. Sango had generously left out all the more colorful nuances of the crazy bunny's behavior towards Aki. "She keeps trying to claim Aki as her mate."

"But I thought Aki-sama and that one guy with the stripes were mated," little Azusa began, getting confused by the information. "How can a girl claim another girl?"

Kagome blushed scorchingly and Sango desperately stared at the ground. How indeed. Shippou was probably the least bashful when it came to adult matters he thought he understood, and even he found himself incredibly uncomfortable discussing girls with girls, specifically Hanako with Aki, or just plain Hanako with anybody.

"Um, I'm not really sure," he stalled, hurriedly trying to think up an excuse to postpone or otherwise cancel the conversation. The kitsune's eyes lit up as his clever little mind landed upon the best and most wonderful idea. "Well, you're likely to meet the rabbit sooner or later if you hang out with Aki-chan. You can ask her then."

Sango groaned softly, "You won't even have to ask, Hanako is more than willing to tell you whether you care to listen or not!"

Kagome giggled at Sango's obvious exasperation. "I'm just glad she's not here for Sesshoumaru's sake. Remember what that was like?"

"Poor Sesshoumaru-sama," Rin offered in remembrance. Rin personally liked the over active bunny despite being run down by her before they'd been officially introduced. Despite this, she was wise enough to like Hanako much better _away_ from the inu youkai.

Hanako had faced quite a dilemma when presented with the evidence of her beloved Aki as the mate of one Sesshoumaru, male demon. Rather than become overly depressed with the realization that 1. Aki did not share the rabbit youkai's affection and had chosen someone else, and 2. that someone else was male; Hanako had surprised them all by seeming rather indifferent with the situation. When questioned about her attitude on the situation, the others had found that she had not exactly resigned herself to the reality of her predicament. Instead, Hanako had found a creative way to change an otherwise dead-end situation into a strange form of encouragement for her further pursuit of Aki.

After all, mates do not last forever and nothing is set in stone. With a flick of her hair Hanako had informed them in no uncertain terms that she would simply wait for Aki to grow out of this "little phase".

Sesshoumaru was in no way thrilled at being referred to as a "phase". Of course this was still better than what was next related to the group.

Hanako was absolutely certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Sesshoumaru was a woman, much to his disdain. And there was positively nothing anyone could do to convince her otherwise.

Inuyasha could not have contained his glee at his brother's misfortune and wasted no time rubbing in Hanako's confident statement of so-called fact. In short he successfully turned a very stunned full demon into a very irate full demon. What a magician. The two brothers had then proceeded to have the most violent fight in their mutual history that also included Hanako for the fun of it.

Kagome had finally been forced to perform her own little magic trick, forcing Inuyasha to literally drop out of the fight completely. Silence had reigned long enough for Aki to declare the whole situation incredibly stressful and terribly tiresome, to which Kagome readily agreed.

The altercation was immediately forgotten as all participants fell into their own private depression. Inuyasha fretted over Kagome's declaration of finding him tiresome. Hanako trailed after Aki to apologize profusely for proving to be a source of stress. And Sesshoumaru was a bit harder to read. He showed no emotion as usual, but somehow he seemed to go even more statue still and extremely silent.

Thankfully, that wasn't likely to happen now. Hanako wasn't present and everyone was just too worried about Aki to bother with silly arguments and fights.

A violent crash sounded in the near distance, completely proving that certain people were never too worried to fight.

Kagome and Sango hurried the kids along, suddenly worried about finding carnage when they got back to the shrine.

"I swear, you can't take your eyes off them for five minutes," Kagome grumbled wearily. Despite her great displeasure with Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's inability to avoid violence, it was nice to focus on something that was so absurdly routine for the group of shard hunters.

The girls and Shippou stumbled into view of the shrine and were greeted with the image of Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru determined to flay each other alive. More to the point, Inuyasha was sporting a few bloody stripes on his face and Sesshoumaru was displaying a nice purple bruise above his left eye. Nothing serious. Yet.

Sango glanced meaningfully at Kagome, "Men!" she humphed.

Kagome nodded in agreement and promptly activated the spell on Inuyasha creating a dog boy pancake. He seemed to be having a great deal of intimate contact with Earth lately. The miko-in-training shook her head, generally annoyed. Her vocabulary was becoming monotonous.

"Wench!" Inuyasha bellowed over at Kagome. "What'd you do that for!"

"You, dear brother," an icy wind blew his way, "should pay attention to what you're doing!" The youkai lord made a rush for the temporarily incapacitated hanyou.

"Sesshoumaru if you don't stop that right now…" Sango began. The dog demon slowed down and looked at the exterminator quizzically. What the hell could she possibly threaten _him_ with?

"You'll what?" he inquired frostily.

Sango almost balked but smiled as she alighted upon an ingenious ploy. "Why, then Azusa-chan might get so worried about Inuyasha that she," she paused with a saccharine smirk, "might scream." The inu youkai stared at her, trying to connect the little girl's vocal chords to himself in any sort of way where that might actually be a threat.

"Yeah," Shippou chimed in. "And we all know what happens when Azusa-chan screams."

"Sesshoumaru-sama, don't make Azusa-chan scream," Rin pleaded. "Aki-sama has barely recovered from last time."

"Quite right," Kagome declared firmly. "Aki can't handle another episode like that one again. She could barely afford the first one."

"But we all know that if Aki even thinks that Azusa needs her help…" Sango trailed off.

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened imperceptibly, they wouldn't… He glanced at the little girl that could bring about the end of his mating contract with Aki in the worst possible way to find big alligator tears collecting in her childish eyes and the delicate heaving of her chest. A lesser demon might have rolled their eyes at such a defeat. Hell, Inuyasha would be cursing up a storm. Not him, he was the taiyoukai of the western lands; he merely stepped down and offered no real hint of his immense displeasure with the situation.

They had effectively collared him, just like Inuyasha. Sesshoumaru was less than ecstatic about this development, but he hid it with admirable grace.

The overly dramatic cease-fire had temporarily driven Aki from the front of everyone's mind, and the girls had the time to wonder at a certain monk's absence from events. Upon further examination of the scene, Miroku was found plastered on the rock wall next to the shrine. It looked like some hockey player had body checked him into the hard surface without regard to the fact that poor Miroku had no protective gear on.

Sango and Kagome rolled their eyes and sighed. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what had happened. Miroku would be Miroku and there was no question as to just why he'd been used to wallpaper the rock. It was obvious he had attempted to go peeping on the girls in the hot spring and hadn't made it very far. He was lucky to be alive. Sesshoumaru wasn't one to hold back when policing the human lecher.

"So since you're back does that mean Aki is better?" Fred asked startling them. How had they forgotten him? He was the reason behind Aki's current condition.

"The trembling has started to abate and Tama is fairly certain there won't be any lingering stiffness," Sango answered. "We managed to get some water down her while we were waiting. We need to get her started on some food when she wakes up though."

"Yeah, and Tama believed Aki would be rousing soon and thought we should come back and prepare some food so that it will be ready when she wakes up," Kagome added.

"What are you going to make her?" Fred asked.

"Kagome's going to make the weird metal food they found in Aki's bag," Shippou answered in excited curiosity.

"Ah, so you found her soup?" the ghost nodded.

Kagome held up the can. "I figured it would be the best thing to give her. I understand it's something of a comfort food in her country."

"You better believe it is," Fred smiled. "It used to be her favorite."

Sesshoumaru watched them, subconsciously smoothing the lines of confusion from his features. He didn't smell anything like food, and didn't the miko wench and Aki come from the same place? His puzzlement was quickly swept away by the continuation of the conversation.

"Wasn't there something else we were supposed to tell them?" Sango nudged Rin gently and smiled meaningfully.

Rin's face brightened instantly, certain that the rest to be related would make Sesshoumaru-sama's day. "Tama wanted us to ask Sesshoumaru to come."

"What!" Inuyasha bellowed from his recently upright position. "Has the old goat gone crazy!" but before the hanyou could further state his disbelief in this insanity their party was one taiyoukai short.

_She was warm, so comfortably warm. It was a languid warmth that negated any desire for movement. _

_ Somehow she was wrapped in the liquid warmth in such a way that she couldn't tell where her skin came to an end and the world beyond it began. Maybe it was all her… _

_ She was floating in it. This warmth that may as well be her as not. Her body felt weightless, or perhaps she didn't have a body to feel the pull of outside forces. She could fall up she supposed, if up could be discerned from all the other directions. _

_ She opened her eyes to find herself indeed floating, suspended in an airy liquid of a warm neutral color that was most definitely not a part of her. A large bubble of no discernable origin brushed against her, pushing her along until it broke into a flourish of smaller bubbles that trickled around her before continuing on their way. She watched them go. Watched as they pressed against a nearly invisible boundary before bursting free and disappearing completely. That way was up. _

_ Curious, she moved closer, often times catching passing bubbles to propel her faster towards her destination. Eventually she was close enough to touch it and realized that she wasn't sure she wanted to surface yet. Her fingers reached to tentatively brush against the line dividing her liquid haven and whatever was beyond it. Pain shot up her arm to flare painfully through her awareness, tingeing her fluid surroundings an achy purple before she hastily withdrew her reaching appendage. _

_ She'd had enough of that pain. All her waking and dreaming life seemed to be filled with it. It was much more tempting to stay beneath the surface in the blissful numbing warmth she'd found herself in. Escapism was the perfect way to go when that was the alternative. _

_ Besides, she wasn't so sure she wanted to wake up yet, if she even could wake up. Maybe this is where you find yourself when you slip into a coma… _

_ Traitorous bubbles snuck up and pushed her past the surface despite her unwillingness to cross into the pain. She was assailed with pain that seared into her eyeballs causing her to close them while more pain raked over her skin, forcing her to become aware of all that ailed her. And she was cold, alone. _

_ No, not alone, there was a pair of comforting arms wrapped around her. She must still be dreaming. Aki smiled tiredly. _

_ The feeling of the arms around her and the comfort they offered, it reminded her of a time when she wasn't always alone, when she didn't have to be alone. It reminded her of her mother. A tear escaped from her eyes. She missed being a part of something bigger than herself. _

_ Perhaps she was dead and her family was now all around her, where else would she be able to feel this comforting familiar embrace? Maybe if she called out like she used to her mother would soothe her like when she was little. _

_ "Mama," she tried. _

"Mama," a sleepy voice whimpered.

Tama clutched the girl closer to her chest. The old demon didn't know what the word meant, but the sentiment was recognizable. It didn't take much to figure out what a young person in pain and suffering from the effects of fatigue might call out for in their sleep.

The goat demon settled a little lower in the water, allowing more of the warm water to lick at Aki's previously exposed skin. The air smelled heavily of the cleaning liquids her recently departed assistants had lavished on the invalid, saturating the air with vanilla and lavender. And while they were cleaning Aki, the children just had to use the stuff too.

Tama smiled at the memory. Imitation was the greatest form of flattery, and Shippou, Rin and now Azusa were quite taken with the poor former tutor. It boosted her confidence for the future if Aki was so good with kids without really trying. It said good things about her ability to handle children of her own someday. Children that Sesshoumaru-sama would be sure to sire and give the old goat demon more work to do.

Tama had known very well that Sesshoumaru wouldn't possibly give this female up after the termination of their current mating contract. She had raised him as his nanny. He was a very serious child that had grown into a rather serious adult. She'd always known that when he found someone he wanted to mate with, it would be a serious relationship and the relationship would last. He was just too staid not to be that way about all things, especially something so very important and special.

Tama shifted restlessly, then again, there was his pride to consider, and Aki had injured it several times already. Sesshoumaru could be unpredictable when it came to his cherished pride. The old goat demon sighed; it was up to her to insure that his pride did not cause further injury to the situation, turning a somewhat uncertain issue into a bone of contention. Thankfully she was an old pro at manipulating stubborn, prideful inu youkai to her bidding.

With all the perfume in the air, it took her a moment to recognize her lord's scent when he arrived. Tama suppressed a smug smile, now she could get out of the damn water and diffuse his upset at being forced to allow somebody else to care for his mate. Sesshoumaru was one of those that preferred to depend upon himself as opposed to delegating responsibility.

"You may as well come out now, Sesshoumaru-sama," Tama called to the still obscured taiyoukai. "You need to be the one holding her when she wakes, not I."

"She would not care either way," Sesshoumaru declared coolly.

"Perhaps not," she answered evenly. "But I thought you might care even so. After all, I merely thought to please you, not this silly child who cannot be trusted to care for herself let alone anyone else. Surely, her opinion holds no merit in this situation, and the best way to win her over and become an indispensable part of her life is to be there at every turn. If you are there every time she has a need for aid it won't be long before she will turn to you naturally, without thought." Tama smiled indulgently.

"How am I to be there for her when you constantly remove her from me?" Sesshoumaru bit out with icy anger.

"Well, you may have noticed I'm currently trying to give her back, but you appear to not want her. If that is the case, you can go back to the shrine, Sesshoumaru-sama, I am sorry to have bothered you so," Tama shrugged gently before making to turn away. Before she had the chance to resettle in the water, Aki was no longer resting in her arms.

Sesshoumaru stood straight cradling his mate to his chest while glaring down at her with a growl. Tama smiled gently up at him. "You should make sure to keep her in the water before she gets cold. She seems to whimper more when she's exposed to the air," the former nanny murmured gently as she got out of the spring. "It seems to stimulate dreams or memories of her mother."

"It's probably just the feeling of being held," Fred guessed from out of nowhere. "When she's out of the water she feels the warmth of someone holding her more distinctly than in the hot spring. Most likely it brings back memories of when she was little and her mom would hold her."

"Come on ghost," Tama commanded the dead human. "We should head towards the village."

"I have a name you know," Fred grumbled.

"Dead humans shouldn't be so demanding," Tama scolded him as they wondered out of sight, still arguing.

Sesshoumaru stared after them before sinking into the water. He had removed part of his wardrobe before entering the water so he could distinctly feel the flesh of Aki's cheek against his chest. It was relaxing to find her safely in his keeping again with the water soothing the residual tension from his muscles.

He watched pensively as their hair floated and mixed on the top of the water, creating webs and patterns of silver and gold. Aki was his mate. And yet, she was plagued by a past she was frightened would destroy the world around her. He didn't know how to fix this problem. He was quite obviously failing to convince her to forget her promises and he couldn't persuade her that no curse could ever harm him. Though if Fred were to be believed, Sesshoumaru couldn't be absolutely certain of his own immunity to this curse.

Aki's feeble attempts to stretch drew his attention from his thoughts. Her eyes blinked open to clear the sleep from them before her vision focused on his face hovering above her. "What?" she asked in confusion. What was she doing asleep, in a bathtub with Sesshoumaru there? Sesshoumaru shouldn't be anywhere near the time when she would be able to use a bathtub and she definitely shouldn't ever be sleeping in one.

Sesshoumaru brushed her hair from her face before offering an explanation, stilling her tired, ineffectual flailing before she threw herself under the water. "You collapsed after we settled the problem with Azusa. Then the women took you and followed Azusa to find this hot spring that should've helped prevent your joints from stiffening while you rested."

"How long have I been unconscious?" she asked. She had the sneaking suspicion that however long she was out was about how long she'd been in the water.

"Long enough," Sesshoumaru stated with displeasure. He'd been worried.

Aki rolled her eyes at his answer. That really didn't tell her anything. "It's probably a good idea for me to get out of the water," she decided out loud. "Wonder if anyone was thoughtful enough to leave a towel and a change of clothes."

Sesshoumaru obligingly lifted her out of the water causing her to cling to him in surprise. He proceeded to carry her out of the water never once bothering to heed her various protests and exclamations. He wasn't putting her down until there was no chance she could accidentally drown herself. The rate things were going, he wouldn't put it past her.

Aki shoved away from him the moment her feet touched the ground. She found the clothes Kagome and Sango had left behind and began to dress in the warm, dry material, grumbling incoherently under her breath. When she was done she threw the damp towel she'd found at Sesshoumaru and curtly suggested he use it to dry his hair. The former tutor ignored the short growl he sent her way while finger combing her hair.

Before she could finish, Sesshoumaru had grabbed her up and placed her in his lap. "What is your problem?" Aki demanded.

"You are my problem," Sesshoumaru growled in response. "You and your penchant for exhausting yourself to the point of collapse and beyond. You rendering yourself incapable of thought above the level of instinct as indicated by the episode with that human child."

Aki blinked, "I've never done that before. How was I supposed to know that sort of thing could happen? I'm kind of new to this whole youkai thing you know. They don't have Being Demon 101 college courses to take in the event you suddenly find out you're not human because some stupid witch has a sadistic sense of humor. Not that it's any of your business, I'm the one who has to live in this body not you!"

Sesshoumaru's surprise at her strange terminology and the repeated reference to previously believing herself human quickly dissolved under her last statement. "It is my business if my mate slowly destroys herself!" His anger was simply too close to the surface where she was concerned, sometimes it worried him.

"I am not a piece of property!" Aki declared. "I may be ignorant of what it takes to be a proper demon, but I will never belong to anybody but myself."

Sesshoumaru growled wordlessly, before forcefully calming his anger. He needed to address one issue at a time. "What do you know?" he inquired through gritted teeth.

"About what?" Aki asked in bewilderment.

"About instinct," Sesshoumaru answered, throttling his irritation.

"Nothing really," she replied.

Sesshoumaru stifled a sigh, this was not a conversation he'd seen himself having with her. "My father once described youkai instinct as the animal beast that is what separates us from the humans in this world. WE are more intelligent than the animals, capable of more complex emotions, but unlike humans, we retain the close connection with nature our animal counterparts rely on to survive. Unlike the animals however, we have the option of choosing how to heed this built in sense of behavioral rules. Some species closely follow the urgings of their instincts while others oppose them more often. This is why Kitsune are mischievous and sly and Ookami are almost always hunt in packs and why I don't expect Inuyasha to live much longer if he continues to do the exact opposite of what his instincts tell him to do."

"It's why females are always so protective of their children," Sango added with a grin as she walked around a tree to present Aki with a cup full of a steaming liquid. "Instinct isn't so bad, it's just that when it surfaces like that in someone who normally isn't so prone to succumbing to such direction, it most often means that person has pushed themselves to a point beyond reason. You were exhausted before you rose to protect Azusa, after that; there was no point in trying to really reason with you. Your instincts took over and didn't recognize any of us as allies."

"Well that sucks," Aki muttered flippantly, absently sipping the broth Sango had brought. "You could have left the chicken and noodles in it you know," she grumbled.

"Kagome was afraid that would be too much with how Fred described your eating habits for the last few weeks," Sango explained. "Actually according to him you haven't eaten since the day after you left Sesshoumaru's."

The youkai lord glared at Aki while she hid behind her cup to finish off the broth. Sesshoumaru wasn't going to let her get away with that. He stole her mug and tossed it to Sango with a curt order to go away.

Aki was ready to snap at him for throwing her mug, it wasn't the first time he'd done something like that after all, and she was pissed that he'd been so rude to Sango. Just because he didn't care about the human warrior didn't imply he had to be mean about it. It wasn't Sango's fault he was a narrow-minded jackass.

She never got her chance to express her anger; Sesshoumaru grabbed her up in a semi-desperate kiss as soon as the human woman was out of sight. The inu youkai needed to reassure himself that Aki was both alive and in one piece, and his instincts were in high gear and screaming a very specific way to do that. After all, Aki had been gone for several weeks, hidden from him and beyond his reach, something mates were never supposed to be. Internally he smirked, he hoped nobody was stupid enough to interrupt this, he'd hate to have to kill them before he was done.


	4. Of Buttons and Chicken Noodle Soup

It's Wednesday again and we all know what that means... Time to go for a walk. Just kidding!

Today we learn how wonderful condensed soup is and just how tiresome buttons can be... or rather, just how much certain youkai would prefer that they not exist!

Aki manages to get herself in trouble again. Seriously, how on earth does she manage it all the time? Not even Fred could pull it off as often as she seems to. Then again, Fred is dead and not likely to piss off a taiyoukai by getting himself into various scrapes and whatnot. Aki on the other hand. Well lets just say it's hard to keep track of how many of Rumiko Takahashi's characters manage to get angry with her over things that aren't necessarily her fault.

Read and Review and ask questions and whatnot. you know you want to!

**Of Buttons and Chicken Noodle****Soup**

Outside of a very unusual shrine, one popular dog boy was pealing himself out of a crater once again. His hanyou body was beginning to ache from the amount of time he'd spent kissing the ground lately. Not so long ago he would've blamed everything on Kagome and the enchanted beads encircling his neck, but the little time he'd spent with Aki over the past few moon cycles had made it apparent that he brought a lot of it on himself.

Aki had a different way of looking at things that had astounded him at first. She never assigned blame for anything wholly upon any one person. She weighed a situation carefully, trying to see things from every possible angle before passing judgment. Instead of pushing a potential problem aside she analyzed it, in most cases circumventing all the possible ill effects that might have developed otherwise.

Aki also didn't seem to take anything personally. She didn't care what strangers thought of her. Actually she didn't seem to care what anyone but Fred thought of her, and sometimes she didn't seem to particularly care what he thought either. Inuyasha suspected this was the reason Aki seldom ever got angry.

Despite her disregard for the opinion of others, she was extremely polite. It was probably the reason why everyone got along with her so well. There were fewer violent altercations when Aki was around, and with the exception of Naraku, people seldom offered violence after meeting her the first time. She could ally herself with some of the most withdrawn and hate filled people. Take Kikyou for example.

So Inuyasha had begun to try to emulate her "technique". Of course his mouth often got in the way, and his thought processes weren't quite sharp enough to successfully traverse the narrow meanderings of the analytical mind. The dog boy found that he failed in this endeavor often but refused to give up. Like any other skill, practice makes proficient, and he was progressing. Very slowly.

For example, the fight he'd picked with Sesshoumaru earlier, while not unusual in and of itself, had unusual reasons behind it. Miroku had made the mistake of pursuing his usual behavior whenever females happened to be using a hot spring for the traditional use. In fact, the monk had tried to convince the inu youkai that they should "check" on the girls. He soon learned that whilst the demon lord currently wasn't thinking particularly clearly, he wasn't stupid either.

Though Sesshoumaru had seemed utterly indifferent and altogether put upon by Shppou's parting shots, he had taken the kit's warnings to heart. No male was to see _his_ mate the way he did. It was a privileged vision of paradise meant only for him. Shippou didn't count. So of course, he'd protected his property with all the force he could muster. Hence Miroku would've very probably have died, a gooey mess on the youkai lord's claws.

Inuyasha had realized this, had known his lecherous friend would never survive the sole attention of a full-blooded youkai protecting his mate. The hanyou analyzed the pros and cons of getting involved with the situation and with a pained sigh of resolve moved to save the monk. Of course that's where his mouth screwed things up.

In all honesty, he had meant to diffuse the volatile situation with words. This is the part where an analytical mind and a silver tongue would've come in handy. Two things he didn't exactly have.

He was at least partially successful. He managed to divert Sesshoumaru's attention from Miroku before a fatal blow could be dealt. Unfortunately, he hadn't succeeded in cooling the older demon's temper and had essentially taken the monk's place on the pounding block.

And that's how the girls found them. He was rather surprised that Kagome and Sango were capable of diffusing the situation he'd botched. Perhaps it was a skill inherent in females to varying degrees. Or perhaps it was something learned by all the people in the future and Kagome had simply taught Sango. Course neither Sango nor Kagome could claim the mastery of this ability that Aki so easily displayed. He dismissed the subject without another thought.

Now where had everybody gone? The hanyou glanced around the area in search of his friends. The wonderful smell of cooked poultry met his nose and drew him to the cooking fire inside the shrine building. Who knew it would be so easy to locate everybody he was looking for?

Kagome had kindly allowed everyone a small taste of the aromatic soup before sending the majority of the broth out to Aki to sup on. There were mixed reviews from the board of taste testers. The kids were unanimously for it. Though they were most likely more impressed by the strange packaging than the taste of it.

Inuyasha walked in just after the samples were finished off. He was left out of the taste testing for reasons that do not need explaining. Though he was interested in the informative conversation that followed afterwards.

"Why do they put the food in that weird container?" Shippou asked, as curious as ever.

"It's a special way to preserve the food," Kagome informed him gently. "This way it won't go bad for quite a few years."

Miroku blinked, "Truly your country is full of amazing things."

"Is this the only kind of food they put in," Azusa wrinkled her nose at the strange word, "cans?"

Kagome smiled, "No, they put all sorts of things in them. Fruits, vegetables, soups, certain kinds of meat, juices, even milk!"

"What kinds of fruit?" Rin asked. Fruit was a rare treat.

"Peaches, pears, pineapple, mandarin oranges, cherries," Kagome trailed off.

"And they're good for a long time like that? A year even?" Shippou asked, eyes wide and shiny when Kagome nodded. "Wow! Why don't you ever bring some of that with you?"

"They tend to be a lot heavier to carry around than what I normally bring and you have to remember the can opener," Kagome explained.

"You wouldn't believe how easy it is to forget it," Fred rolled his eyes. "It's easier than forgetting your tooth brush."

"Then why does Aki-sama carry these around with her?" Azusa inquired.

"It reminds her of home," Fred replied. "Wasn't there something people would make for you to eat or do to make you feel better when you were feeling sad or ill? It's a comfort thing. You associate that food or action with a sense of contentment or a feeling of being loved. There's something that makes everyone feel better," the ghost said. "It's one of the few things we all have in common."

"So it won't make Aki-sama better?" Azusa asked.

"Sometimes feeling better makes it easier to get better, Azusa-chan," Kagome explained. "And just getting Aki to eat will help her get better."

"Well, she certainly seemed happy to see that cup of broth, though she was slightly upset we took all the meat and stuff out," Sango began as she walked in the door of the shrine. "She said we took all the good stuff out."

"Heheh," Fred chuckled. "Aki never was one to slurp broth. Give her something to chew!"

"I didn't want to make her sick by giving her too much too fast!" Kagome protested.

"And you were right to be cautious, child," Tama declared. "In a few hours we can try feeding her more. Cases of prolonged hunger are difficult to deal with."

"Aki's tough, she could handle a little meat," Inuyasha asserted. "Especially if it reminds her of happier times and places."

"And why would you care Inuyasha?" Tama asked slyly. If the younger brother liked this female as well, there could be serious trouble.

"Because I'm the only brother she's got!" he answered.

"Aki never agreed with that!" Fred grumbled.

"Yeah, but now that she's got no family, someone was bound to try and take care of her else she be taken advantage of by unscrupulous bastards," Inuyasha declared. "Lucky for her I decided to fill the position."

"I'm not so sure that was lucky for her," Kagome muttered.

"What was that?" Inuyasha prodded her with an accusing tone.

"Nothing," Kagome smiled innocently.

"What do you mean Aki has no family?" Tama demanded.

"Aki's family was wiped out by a curse," Shippou answered. "So now she's my big sister, or my aunt. What do you think Kagome?"

"I think you shouldn't jump and just decide to start calling her that by yourself," Kagome answered.

"Well I don't think it matters as she is now the mate of lord Sesshoumaru," Tama dismissed the topic. "He'll take care of her."

"Are you crazy? He's one of those unscrupulous bastards I was talking about!" Inuyasha yelled.

"You question my judgment, Inu-_chan_?" Tama grit out mockingly.

Inuyasha flushed scarlet, thoroughly embarrassed by Tama's old pet name for him, especially in front of Kag-in front of his friends. Of course this only made him angrier with Tama. "Hell yes I question it!"

Amazingly enough the world did not end right then. In fact not far away, a body shivered in the peaceful quiet of a passing breeze.

Sesshoumaru gazed contentedly down on his slumbering mate. Sure life wasn't perfect, Aki was almost certainly going to attempt to run off again. He was finding it damn near impossible to persuade her that all other promises were superseded by a mating contract. She just wouldn't see reason.

She likewise just suddenly smelled of blood. Sesshoumaru stirred with slightly growing concern. He examined his claws to make certain that the telltale smell of blood was not snagged on their sharp points. It wasn't, thereby proving that this blood wound was not caused by him.

So if he hadn't caused her injury and she hadn't been so injured before, where did the smell of blood come from? He raised himself up to check Aki over for the wound he was sure to find somewhere.

His mate stirred restlessly in her sleep, unconsciously reacting to the greater exposure to the cool air. Her movement likewise exposed the correct expanse of skin so that he finally managed to find the reason for his worry.

The wound stuck out like red flag against her skin. How could he have not noticed it before? He worriedly moved to probe the wound in disbelief and growing anger. The wound had obviously not been cared for properly and could have become infected. Luckily it hadn't, but it could have.

Aki opened her eyes at the sudden pain when Sesshoumaru probed a little too forcefully. It was quite strange to see the inu youkai hovering over her stomach while poking a rather large wound in her side with his claws. "Wonderful," she groaned as she realized just what it was. "Bought time the damn thing surfaced." She went to remove the demon lord's strong fingers from her side and he growled at her. The woman sighed in exasperation. "What are you pissed at me for now?"

He raised an eyebrow at her and poked the wound firmly in reply. "This has not been cared for properly."

"Kind of hard to doctor something that isn't there yet," she muttered.

"What are you talking about?" He demanded angrily.

"Ah that's right! You and everybody else got to forget about him," she shoved herself into a sitting position, consequently forcing him to move out of her way. "I guess I'll just have to fill you in on a few minor details. One, I may have left you, but if all I was trying to get away from was you I would've had the time to eat and sleep and still stay out of your reach. Two, it turns out you aren't the only bastard that wants to make demands on me." He growled at her with displeasure, jealousy and rage getting the better of him. She ignored his outburst and plowed straight ahead. "Three, some wounds dealt in dreamland will make an appearance in reality, they just tend to take their time." She hauled herself from the ground, letting her frustrated anger fuel the action.

Aki was quickly getting dressed when the next wound manifested. She hissed in pain and the next thing she knew the ground was again her best friend. "Damnit, Sesshoumaru, get off!" He'd pinned her to the ground again in his hurry to inspect the new wound.

She looked down to see the first wound's twin running parallel to the first. "How many more of these are likely to show up, woman?" Sesshoumaru demanded. Her explanation had been cryptic at best.

Aki winced as he tugged the waist of her pants down to inspect the wounds completely. "I don't know," she said softly, dimly wishing he'd let her finish dressing. "I stopped keeping track after the third dream."

"Dream?"

"Naraku's-" she hissed as another wound joined the others, "stupid detachment. The painted one, remember?" She gasped as the last of the set appeared. Sesshoumaru inspected the wounds, which could only be claw marks.

Somehow she found the energy to brush him away from the ugly gouges so she could finish dressing. She found her bra, or at least the remains of it. "Do you have to destroy my clothing all the time?"

"It was in my way," the demon lord said, discarding the issue.

Aki's anger flared enough to cover the pain of another minor wound's manifestation. She hated when people destroyed her things. It showed a distinct lack of respect that would be a major relationship killer that is if this was a real relationship, which it wasn't. Her anger deflated into a kind of depression when she found the buttons missing from her shirt.

She sighed, suddenly very tired of the whole absurd situation. She made a face as she bent to find the little pieces of plastic. She felt very much like crying. This shirt was something special to her, as all homemade clothing is special. Most especially since it reminded her of the family she no longer had.

"What are you doing?" the inu youkai demanded.

"Looking for the buttons," she replied absently.

"The what?" That was certainly a word he wasn't familiar with.

"Buttons. The things that fasten my shirt closed."

"I don't like buttons. An obi is much more convenient."

Aki snorted, she would just bet it made things "convenient". "Well, I like buttons. I don't have to worry about my shirt coming loose because buttons don't come undone on their own. They're better than snaps, though not as good as zippers when it comes to keeping things closed."

"Then I like snaps better than buttons and zippers less so," the lord stated quietly.

Aki tiredly shook her head at him as she found the last of her buttons. Now how to get back to the shrine without provoking an episode of Miroku's wandering hands? Safety pins would have been nice. The former English tutor made a mental note to invest in t-shirts and other garments that didn't fasten up the front or back. One-piece shirts should be more of a deterrent to Sesshoumaru's need for haste, right?

Deciding she'd just have to cross her arms and bear the uncertainty of maintaining decency, she sighed. Might as well get this over with. Aki set off towards the smell of Inuyasha and company.

Now, any male youkai worth his salt will tell you, one does not allow an exhausted, wounded, and possibly breeding female walk anywhere. Period. No ifs, ands, and definitely no buts. Aki was not aware of this rule, but did she ever find.

Sesshoumaru never was one to talk about anything when an action could prove sufficient. So he didn't exactly warn Aki that he wasn't going to let her walk. Nor did he explain his reasons for coming up behind her and hauling her off her feet and into his arms. To say she was startled would be an understatement.

"Sesshoumaru," she cooed softly after her shock had worn off a small amount. She smiled disarmingly up at him before delivering a fierce sucker punch to get his attention. "Don't you EVER PULL SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN!"

Some might suppose that this little fit might have angered the stoic taiyoukai, but it didn't. Aki had made no move to get away from him; she was still settled into his embrace, producing no real struggle beyond the somewhat light sucker punch. There was no real need for him to waste the energy getting angry.

For her part, Aki didn't really mind him carrying her. She was completely exhausted and perfectly content to let someone else do the walking. It also made it easier to keep her shirtfront closed because all the material had bunched up in the front, allowing for more of an overlap. Plus Sesshoumaru's smooth stride was making her mildly drowsy.

Sesshoumaru was sneakily allowing his pace to gradually decrease as he went. The longer it took to get back to the village and the shrine, the more time he had her all to himself. It was a cause worthy enough for minor subterfuge. Especially since she'd been out of reach for such a long while.

Mates weren't supposed to separate like that. True, mating contracts weren't permanent, but there was a very specific protocol to follow in order to end them. And each level contract had its own built in termination date, excepting the last one meant for permanent mates. Wolves were one of the few species he knew of that progressed to that level on a regular basis.

The contract he'd initiated with Aki made her Sesshoumaru's until she had produced an heir. It meant that he would be around to protect her and provide his energies to her for the healthy development of his offspring. Her end of the contract involved carrying that offspring and foreswearing any other males until it had been terminated.

Given the choice, he would probably mark her again and again, until she couldn't escape him ever. But he couldn't do that. In fact, if some outside party stumbled upon Aki now and discovered she was ignorant of the basic mating contracts youkai's used, they could nullify the contract he had set up. It was the only time an outside party could break a mating contract.

Sesshoumaru's pace had continually degraded until he had all but stopped moving as he delved into the deeper darker realms of thought.

Aki shifted, causing him to pick up his pace. She had dropped off to sleep shortly after he'd begun walking and he'd prefer to let her sleep a bit longer. Her face was lined with fatigue and the obvious signs of her exhaustion.

Once he broke free of the trees, two very eager sentries in the form of Rin and Shippou accosted the inu youkai. The two children had been keeping a look out for the return of Sesshoumaru and Aki so that they could claim the great accomplish of "I saw them first!" For children this is an especially marvelous thing to be able to say because the world is so new to them, but so many things have been seen by others first. It is very exciting to be able to see _something_ before everyone else.

Thus their little voices were less than muted when they assailed the youkai lord carrying his mate. Sesshoumaru nearly felt like pounding the two children when he felt Aki jump into surprised consciousness.

"Aki-sama! Are you all better now?"

"You missed it! Tama beat the crud out of Inuyasha!"

"Sesshoumaru-sama, Rin was worried!"

"He still can't stand up straight!"

"Can Aki play with Rin now?"

"Didn't know a bowl could be so effective!"

Aki smiled at their energetic chatter before something occurred to her. There were only two children standing in front of her. She narrowed her eyes, "Where is Azusa?"

Sesshoumaru tensed at that question. If the little girl wasn't somewhere completely harmless he just knew there would be trouble.

"She and Kagome went to put flowers on the graves," Rin told her and Shippou backed her up with a nod while he crossed his arms.

"Where -exactly- are they?"

"Last I saw they were in the circle you made," Shippou began.

Suddenly Sesshoumaru found himself on the ground. The dog demon had been pushed back when Aki launched herself forward using the taiyoukai as a springboard.

Aki pushed herself for speed. There were two people inside that circle and the sun was nearly set.

She burst into sight of the circle in front of the shrine, instantly noting the location of Azusa and Kagome. She barely had time to whisper soundless thanks at finding them near the edge closest to the shrine.

"Aki!" a childish voice cried over Sesshoumaru's frustrated growl. The shout caused Kagome and Azusa to turn and walk closer to her, closer towards the center of the circle.

Aki all but screamed to herself in frustration as she somehow managed to pour on more speed. The sun slipped ever unstoppably past the horizon. The air in her lungs burned its passage in her chest. The water streamed out of her eyes, muscled aside by the false wind of her run.

An almost indiscernible sliver of light was visible when Aki finally reached the girls only to send them flying off their feet out of the circle ahead of her.

"Kyaa!"

"AAAaaahhh!" they screamed, not liking the sensation of flying through the air.

SLAM! THUD! THUMP! The ominous closure of the day found Kagome and Azusa safely, if a little bruised outside of the circle. Aki on the other hand had slammed into the barrier as it snapped into place when the light slipped out of view. The force of the impact knocked her back into the circle and flat on her back. Blood trickled down her chin from where she bit her tongue in reflex.

"Ow," she whimpered. Aki sat up and looked around her, eyes slowly growing to the size of dinner plates. "Oh no!" she squeaked out in horror. The almost youkai clambered quickly to her feet before the adrenaline could clear from her system.

Aki gathered her power in a glowing ball in front of her, eyes firmly closed in concentration. The power built up, quickly expanding until finally she turned her palms outward and a barrier snapped securely around her. It would hold, not forever, but for now it would hold.

Aki's knees collapsed under her as a wave of exhaustion hit and she fell forward on her hands attempting to hold her up. Shakily she crawled to the edge of the circle to curl up against it. Chest still heaving from her mad dash, she belatedly realized she could take in more air if she leaned her head back against the barrier instead of attempting to tuck it in to her knees.

Sango and Inuyasha were already helping Azusa and Kagome respectively. The hanyou was slowly losing his composure to an angry rumble deep in his chest. Sango was calm enough to realize there had to be a reason of Aki's actions and was willing to wait for an explanation before getting angry.

Aki was the only one who looked the worse for wear despite the other girls' flight and subsequent impact with the ground. The former English tutor's eyes watered fiercely as her muscles trembled in protest of this most recent abuse. Silently she thanked whatever deity truly existed for the one button still attached to her shirtfront. Its placement was impeccable and had saved her from public indecency.

Aki began to laugh and cry at the same time. It was absurd. Here she was, trapped in a life-threatening situation having just saved two others from the same situation and she was thankful she hadn't flashed everyone? She really was exhausted! Either that, or very seriously drunk. She laughed until her sides ached and cried until her eyes burned before a manifesting wound managed to sober her up.

Again she was out of breath and everybody was looking at her, some were even growling. "Growl all you want, there ain't a damn thing any of you can do until morning," she said between gulps of air.

"What do you mean?" Tama glared at her, almost certain nobody was going to like the answer.

"She means," a certain ghost priest spoke for her, "that you can't come in this circle and she can't leave until the sun rises. Oh Aki-sama! This is a very grave situation." Aki chuckled mirthlessly as she leaned tiredly against the barrier.

"How grave?" Sesshoumaru's voice left her wincing inwardly. Was he ever pissed!

"What do you know of the violent deaths of children?" Shoko asked. Aki shook her head. It was a bad idea to deflect an inquiry from the great inu youkai. Sesshoumaru's feral growl had the multiple ghosts inside the circle stepping away from him.

"It means," Aki sighed, "that unless my shield holds until sunrise you may be digging another grave." She paused tiredly, "Mine."

"Aki-sama, what threatens you inside the circle?" Miroku asked slightly confused.

"Refer back to Shoko's question earlier. What do you know of Human children who die violent deaths?" Aki grumbled. Sesshoumaru was definitely going to be pissed, that is, if he wasn't already.

"Humans are born with all the life energy required to live out their lives, which means that when they're children they are literally full of energy," surprisingly it was Haku who answered. "When they die, especially in violent deaths, they have what could be considered the starving man reaction. Having suddenly lost all that life energy, they seek out and feed off what life energies they can find."

The priest nodded in agreement, "Normally this wouldn't be a problem. The ghosts of children don't usually hang around long enough, nor do they siphon off enough energy to be noticed by the living."

"But?" Sango prompted certain it was bad news.

"But they normally don't occur in such large numbers. There's too many of them and I'm not in the condition that would negate this problem." Aki finished and waited for a reaction. She didn't have to wait long.

The circle didn't even crackle under the stress of so many strong bodies crashing into it.

Aki groaned at all the useless noise as she unearthed a handy rock. "Would you knock it off!" she growled as she whipped the rock at the disruption. There was a satisfying cry of pain as the rock connected with somebody's skull. "Breaking down the barrier isn't going to save me you know! If anything it'll make one grave turn into nearly a dozen!"

"What do you mean?" Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her. He didn't like problems he couldn't solve simply.

Aki only sighed. "She means that there are enough of us in here to wipe out all of you should the circle be destroyed," Haku answered quietly.

"So we can't break her out?" Kagome asked for clarification.

"Not if you want to live through it," Fred answered evenly.

"So the only possible solution is to hope for me to keep my shield up until day break. Which I should be able to do," Aki muttered. "So long as I manage to stay awake."

And there was the kicker, Aki was completely exhausted and sleep deprived. Staying awake wasn't going to be easy.

Suddenly it seemed as if time wasn't in any hurry to move along.


	5. Wishing for Insomnia

Wednesday again! and oh isn't it wonderful. Actually I'm afraid I don't have today off. And I don't have Wednesday off next week either. Don't ask me what the hell is going on, they switched managers in our department a few weeks ago and my nice normal consistant schedule has been shot to hell.

I did complain about it to her, too. I was told it was the only way I would get all my hours. That is TOTAL BULLSHIT too! Because I was getting more hours before she took over than I'm getting now and I never had to open the morning after I closed. My schedule used to be consistently all day or all evenings. Now it's all over the friggin' map and every night I close is followed by a morning where I open. _every _time! Of course I didn't want to say it at the time. My eval is coming up in a little over two weeks, but damnit! This is rediculous. I'm one of their most consistent workers and I'm not likely to disappear on them any time soon (barring quitting in a fit of disgust and anger, everybody's fantasy at wal-mart) whereas quite a few others are leaving. One girl is going away to school. Another is coming up on some maternity leave. Another's got two businesses and school coming up real quick. Yet another is transferring to a different department. Which leaves us with all the people who work during the daytime (all week, and I mean all week) and two or three of us who are sometimes scheduled at night. AND we're short staffed to begin with. I need a new job.

On a totally different note: I finished typing up part four on Monday so there will be no break between part 3 and 4. That gives you three and a half months of reading pleasure before the threat of a significant break in my posting schedule. Break out the party poppers and confetti!

**Wishing for Insomnia**

There are days where you are thankful for your enemies. This is just one of those days for Aki. Or should we say, one of those nights.

The ghosts in the circle did their fair share of helping the exhausted Aki stay awake. They'd badgered her with all the boundless, senseless enthusiasm only children possess. Of course only children would have been as effective, for there is nothing more evil in the eyes of youth than the hated state of _boredom_. So they of course asked Aki to entertain them.

The almost demon readily complied, just as eager for the chance of dissipation as they were and twice as needful of something to do. She taught them games from her American childhood, very careful to introduce only the games that could be played with one or two people in a semi-stationary fashion. Games like Hide and seek or tag couldn't have been played very well in the crowded confines of the circle and it would have seemed rather cruel to introduce them for that reason alone. She had to explain games that required physical contact because she couldn't demonstrate them, adding that extra entertainment of the various ridiculous gestures and terminology used to introduce things like thumb wars and the various patty-cake games.

She taught them games until she ran out and launched into nursery rhymes and other childish tools invented to sharpen memory skills. Then Aki started reciting the various folk and fairy tales she could remember.

Eventually she ran out of those too. Or perhaps she just couldn't get her brain to recall anymore of them. She was pretty sure she screwed up some of those stories as it was. By then of course, most of the kids were too busy with their various distractions to really notice that Aki wasn't an active participant any more.

Azusa noticed though. She hadn't participated in the games like the others. She wasn't there to play. Aki was in that circle now because of her and Kagome. And Azusa blamed herself, quite firm in her feelings of guilt. It hadn't helped much when Sesshoumaru had cornered her and Kagome with the same accusations. He'd almost gotten violent before Aki nailed him with another handy rock.

Tama had looked on in bemusement. It was strange to see the taiyoukai effectively handled by an exhausted female wielding a simple rock. Especially when said female, who was the lord's mate, threatened to just "Let them eat her now!" Sesshoumaru had then sulked away, though not visibly sulking of course, and hadn't been within view of the circle or Aki since.

So Azusa couldn't run to get him as Aki's tired eyes slid closed. Not that she would have anyway, Sesshoumaru scared her. The little girl ran to the shrine where everyone else was attempting to sleep as per Shoko's advice. It was best that they attempt to sleep in order to be wide-awake to help Aki when she needed them later in the night.

Azusa didn't even need to go past the main room. The moment she entered the front door, Inuyasha and Miroku were up and heading out the door. They stumbled over each other in their haste to reach the circle, thus Miroku, through some seriously twisted turn of events, beat Inuyasha.

"Looks like it's my turn," Miroku grinned triumphantly.

"Keh!" Inuyasha scoffed and settled in to a crouch comfortably in wait. He wasn't going to leave the monk alone with Aki despite the barrier and crowd of ghost children present.

"All right monk, ask your questions," Aki grumbled. "I do however, reserve the right to not answer," she added when his face took on a devilish grin.

His expression wilted a bit momentarily before he fortified it and set himself to interrogating the lovely creature. "Why did you warn us that your shield might not hold?"

"They're already feeding on it."

"What do you mean?"

Aki sighed. "They feed off of living energy subconsciously. They don't even realize they're doing it. My shield is made of living energy, as it is attached to me and I am alive. The only difference between feeding off the shield and feeding directly off me is that the energy of the shield has been given a specific task." She swallowed, attempting to wet her throat and dry mouth. "Think of it like diverting water. Slow moving and standing water is relatively easy to divert for irrigation or whatever you need it for whereas swift moving water is more likely to destroy whatever you try to use to divert it. In fact fast moving water, if it doesn't destroy your equipment, is more likely to continue in its original path than to move into the new one."

Miroku nodded, water he understood. "So are they feeding on the energy of the circle?"

"Nope, the circle is made of dead energy."

"How so? It's yours and you're alive."

"Yes, but the circle was created from a wound, blood. Every wound, large or small, is a kind of death. The circle is powerful because my blood is powerful, but it is dead. It was dead the minute it began to cool."

"Okay then," the monk answered, still slightly confused but unwilling to admit it. "Why do you refuse to travel with anyone except Fred?"

She blinked at him. "That's a stupid question. Everyone I ever cared about died of a curse that fell upon me. I am still cursed and determined to prevent anyone else from falling to it. So I don't allow anybody to risk the same thing happening to them. Fred is already dead, no risk there."

"Alright then," Miroku sighed and decided to get back to the circle explanations "You can't exit the circle and we can't get in, yet you are able to throw rocks at us. Why?" If the ghosts couldn't get through, why could something as solid as a rock?

"You would ask me something difficult," Aki muttered, absently massaging her temple as she shifted into a more upright position. "All right, we've already discussed different types of energy right? Dead energy and live energy," She didn't even look to see the monk nod in acknowledgment. Surely you don't think that's all there is. Live energy is sustained in all things living. Dead energy mingles around things of great power that have died. Then there's a third type found in things like rocks and dirt, I tend to call it dormant. The circle doesn't block dormant energies because it doesn't recognize them. That would require a bit more effort to set into the barrier. Usually dormant energy requires a certain amount of skill just to detect because it is so self contained."

"So the ghosts are feeding off the rocks?"

"No, they only feed off live energy. I thought we covered this," Aki looked over her should at him, incredulous of his stupidity. "Besides it requires too much energy to tap into, unless you find a large store of it."

"How do you know all of this anyway? From what Kagome-sama tells us, your world isn't exactly the best about teaching this sort of information."

Aki chuckled, "And that's where the irony comes in. The core of this information I know on a subconscious level. I just know. The rest is scientific speculation and common sense. It appears that I am incredibly sensitive to all energies and can manipulate them. Before this village was wiped out I could tell you the approximate age of nearly every inhabitant. With the exception of Haku, I could probably tell you what type of injury each had last suffered," Her breath caught as a gash manifested under her left eye.

"Aki-sama?" Miroku hadn't missed the sudden appearance of a cut on her face with no obvious cause. "Where'd you get that gash?"

"You remember Naraku's painted detachment? Well, while you guys were playing cat and mouse with the Shikon shards and Sesshoumaru was sulking by himself, I got to play with him," she informed him quietly. "Dream injuries take time to manifest after you wake up."

"Does it hurt?"

"Does it hurt when you wake up after being knocked out?" Aki returned sarcastically.

"Eh, heheh. Right," He rubbed the back of his head self-consciously. There was on last question he was dieing to ask. Of course it would very likely end this little interview. Choices, choices. "What is this school thing?" he smiled weakly. That wasn't it.

She blinked at him. Where the hell had that come from? "School is a near universal system of education. An individual starts in the system usually around the age of five, though some start younger than that. A child is taught how to interact with others, read, write and a number of other things that will aid in later life tasks. Sometimes how well a person does in adulthood is influenced by the amount and type of education received in childhood."

"So school is very important then?" Miroku asked.

"Yes, very important, especially if you want a good job that pays well. Even more so if you want to do something you enjoy. Your job and pay dictate your quality of life and the amount of freedom you have for things that aren't work related."

"How far did you go with your education?"

"All the way, though a person does not have to go past middle school, it is usually beneficial to at least finish high school. I went beyond that, and all ahead of schedule. My family was so proud when I went off to college." She smiled warmly, lost in memory. "My little brothers were so little then. Oh, but they were determined to go to college too. They wanted to grow up and be just like me. My mother used to tease me with their hero worship." She chuckled a little, smile turning sad. "I miss them." Aki shook herself out of her reverie. "Anything else you wanted to ask about?"

"Yes, where is your country?" Still not _the_ question, was Miroku turning chicken?

"That way," she waved her arm in a generally eastern direction.

"How far?"

"Across an ocean."

"What?" Miroku gasped. He'd always thought there was nothing beyond this Island in that direction.

"Across an ocean. Oh dear, I forgot the world is still considered flat," Aki sighed. "Oh well, doesn't matter anyway. If I went there now, there wouldn't really be anything familiar except maybe the huge natural landmarks."

"Why is that?"

"The Europeans haven't "discovered" it yet. Which actually means the land and the natives haven't been exploited by the quietly invading foreign powers. Every country was founded on blood, it's sad really," Aki yawned hugely.

Miroku realized that all his scholarly curiosity was boring, even to Aki. Hell, it almost appeared to be _putting_ her to sleep. That's when he finally decided to just ask the question and get it over with. It was bound to wake her up a little. Miroku built up his courage with a lecherous grin and let the words flow from his lips. "So Aki, what happened to your shirt?"

The reaction was immediate; Inuyasha made Miroku pancakes while Aki looked on in amused shock. She almost laughed; surprised it had taken him that long to ask the question. Unfortunately an especially painful wound chose that moment to manifest. She collapsed under the fresh onslaught of severe pain, holding onto consciousness by the skin of her fanged teeth.

Inuyasha worriedly threw himself down against the barrier to get as close to her as possible, desperately calling for her attention. "Aki! Aki!" the hanyou called to her loudly. When he received no response that way, he thought maybe he shouldn't try yelling so close to her ears. Inuyasha summoned up the gentlest voice he could muster and called using his chosen pet name. "Aki-nee-chan," he willed her to answer.

The exhausted female slowly opened one pain-glazed eye to glance his way. "That's it Aki-nee-chan," Inuyasha kept coaxing her, calling her to move from her prone position back to leaning against the barrier. She moved slowly, jerkily, finally achieving an upright position. It was then he caught a glimpse of what caused her to collapse like that. He went to reach out and soothe her pain forgetting the impediment in his way until he was forcefully reminded.

She leaned her head back and turned to press her cheek against the warmth of his hand on through the barrier. Aki whimpered at the intense pain she had yet to grow accustomed to. Inuyasha growled in horrified sympathy, very able to recognize and understand the pain that had rendered her bereft of coherent thought.

"Oh, Aki-nee-chan…"

"It…hurts…" she grit out. "Inuki-chan…it hurts."

"I know, I know." Of course he knew. Who would know better? Inuyasha knew exactly how it felt for his triangular ears to suffer an injury. For that is what had happened to Aki. One of her sensitive, delicate ears was currently sporting a large tear.

Slowly her body acquired a sort of detachment from the pain. She found herself very awake, and cursing Naraku. Yet, secretly, she was thankful, because the wounds had proven to help keep her awake. That didn't mean she wouldn't cause bodily harm at the first opportunity.

"Aki-nee-chan," Inuyasha started timidly. "How are you holding up?"

She laughed dryly, "I now know what dinner feels like."

"That isn't funny!"

"Would you rather I cry? Break down in hysterics? Lash out without cause? None of that will help me, and some might hurt my situation."

The dog boy growled, "Still, joking isn't the way to deal with this!"

"When you've seen everything I have you learn not to take things too seriously or you risk running mad." Aki yawned; despite the pain she was still exhausted. "You're not planning to interrogate me like the monk are you?"

"Now would I settle in for something like that?" Inuyasha asked with a grin.

"Well seeing as how there isn't anything violent you can do to keep me awake, I really don't see what you're planning," Aki gazed at him under her lashes suspiciously.

From a distance her look seemed rather come hither as opposed to stand-offish, and Sesshoumaru, who had never really left completely, was finding it rather difficult to see her behavior as something innocent. It didn't help that Inuyasha had known Aki longer than him. It didn't help that she had left him without saying goodbye.

"She certainly matches you well if she's got you all twisted up inside," a wise voice observed from slightly behind him. He only growled in response. "There she sits treating your younger half-brother like a mischievous little boy and you stand all the way over here jealous because of it. Listen to their talk, Sesshoumaru-sama. They are merely playing. Neither seeks to remove you from your position as her mate," Tama informed him. "They are like litter mates, two young ones teasing each other over inanities. Surely you don't suspect them of attempting to begin a romantic relationship right before your very eyes. Especially when Inuyasha's other female is so likely to stumble upon them."

"Actually Aki banters like that with most anyone she meets. This is nothing special," Fred butted in on the one-sided conversation. "You should have seen the dressing down and playful talking to she gave to Kikyou when they first met." The ghost chuckled warmly, "Of course that might have been because Kikyou tried to shoot her."

"What?" Tama gasped.

"Oh yes," Fred replied. "Kikyou is rather narrow-minded in her views on youkai. Aki just had to be evil. It didn't matter that Aki had thought she was human up until a few months ago. It didn't matter that Aki wasn't pure youkai at all. All that mattered was that Aki was partial youkai and had the audacity to carry shards of the Shikon no Tama."

"What do you mean, she was human?" Tama demanded.

"I mean precisely what I said. Aki was human. Aki's grandmother placed her under a spell to repress her youkai blood and a few months ago this demented witch broke it." Fred explained, bored with the subject. "Aki hadn't known anything about it. She'd thought her human parents _were_ her parents."

"Sesshou," the goat demon began darkly.

"Ghost, you talk too much," Sesshoumaru growled in irritation. He was well aware of just what Tama was going to do. She _had_ been his former nanny. In a lot of ways she was rather like his mother, and as his mother she would feel it was her place to scold him for his breach of custom and acceptable behavior. He really hated Fred!

Tama would never strike him. She never had, but she really didn't need to. Years of being in her constant care made him very familiar with all the many ways she could punish him for his misbehavior. Lets just say that in his opinion, nothing Naraku could ever do would compare to one of Tama's really good lectures. Nothing!

So Sesshoumaru spent most of his time insuring that they would not happen. Like now was a really good time to step in and end Inuyasha's annoying chat with his mate. The male really didn't have the right to be talking with her anyway. For that matter, the slowly reviving monk had a lesson in respect coming to him as well.

Fortunately for the mortal monk, Kagura made her presence felt right then. Both inu reacted as expected. Inuyasha hauled out his sword before taking the time to really think about wielding a giant weapon capable of destroying barriers around Aki's circle and Sesshoumaru sent a warning growl at the detachment.

Aki sighed and stood up to face the wind youkai strolling down the center of the village. "What are the orders this time, Windy?"

"It's Kagura! KA-GU-RA!" the other woman grit out in annoyance.

Aki shrugged mildly before ordering Inuyasha to put his stupid sword away.

"But it's Kagura," Inuyasha pointed at the detachment as if Aki hadn't already identified the woman.

"And this is a barrier erected to prevent the deaths of you and your friends. Think about it moron!" Aki glared at him before pointedly turning her attention on the detachment that was just now reaching the circle.

"My, someone does good work," Kagura observed as she prodded the unyielding field of energy. "I guess I really will be forced to fulfill my orders this time."

"What do you mean?" Aki asked quietly as she slowly waded through the playing ghosts strewn between her and the wind user.

"My orders were to keep you here until my younger sibling with the painted face got here," she answered, looking Aki in the eye. "I had intended to warn you off or find some other way to persuade you to move before he got here, but apparently there's no chance of that."

Aki sighed, "Nope, no chance of that."

"Wait a minute," Miroku joined the conversation. "You were going to purposely fail to fulfill your orders from Naraku?"

"I don't see why she wouldn't," Fred shrugged. "She always has."

"Kagura rather resents being told what to do," Aki informed him.

"Nah," Kagura waved their words aside. "I just like you."

Aki snorted, "Yeah right."

"In any case you are trying to help us," Miroku pointed out.

"No I'm not," Kagura shook her head. "I'm just keeping Aki alive." Inuyasha nearly fell on his face in surprise. "Aki is somewhat like me. She is denied the one thing she desires in life through no fault of her own, but the sadistic whims of fate and incarnations of evil." Aki smiled gently while the rest of the observers glanced between the two women. "She should be free; free to feel, and live, and thrive."

"Just as the wind should be free to move," Aki murmured quietly.

"Wait a minute," Miroku begged in confusion. "When the hell did you two spend time together to figure this out?"

"Some things you just know," Kagura observed.

"Your job is done now," Aki murmured her face tilted downward to hide from the moonlight.

"What do you mean?" Inuyasha demanded gruffly.

"She means that the reason Kagura was to keep her here has arrived," Fred sadly pointed at the red pinpricks appearing down Aki's throat.

"You may leave, sister dear," the painted detachment's sinister voice floated from the space behind Aki as he forced the partial youkai's head up. "I can take over from here."

"Damn," Fred muttered. "I was hoping the circle would keep him out." The ghost attempted to glare at the invisible demon.

"Hmm," The space behind Aki hummed in amusement at the ghost and the rest of the people gathering outside of the circle.

Inuyasha couldn't seem to stop growling at the threat he could smell but not see, not even Kagome's soothing hand on his arm could silence the sound. Sango helped Miroku to his feet from where he still rested after his beating. Their horror at the situation was a palpable thing that hovered in the air.

But their reactions were nothing compared to Sesshoumaru's whose senses couldn't lose the scent of Aki's fear. He was having trouble maintaining his control, and it was all he could do not to lash out at the barrier that prevented him from coming to her rescue. It didn't help that the detachment proved to hold a deep rooted lust for his mate.

"Did you miss me my little toy?" the detachment's voice slithered through the air. Everyone who heard it felt slimy. "Naraku has sent me to renegotiate your little contest, my sweet one."

Aki tensed further as the painted creation swept her hair to the side and leaned his mouth closer to her ear. Quietly he murmured suggestively to her, "And I do hope you refuse because I've received orders as to what to do should you refuse. I am quite certain to enjoy them," he laughed darkly. "After all, he only specified you had to survive it, not that you had to be kept whole. And I think you'll find that pleasure is remarkably increased by pain."

Sesshoumaru's low growling intensified as Aki's green eyes glazed over slightly in paralyzing terror. Her pointed ears swiveled to catch the sound. Slowly the vague look in her eyes dissipated and she focused on him. Aki's jaw firmed in determination. Her fear wasn't going to hold her captive.

The detachment didn't miss the change in his prey. The again, how does one miss a kick to the head? He snarled ferally at the woman crouched defensively before him.

"Aki-sama! Be careful of the circle!" Haku yelled.

Aki nodded at the ghost in acknowledgment. All of her attacks would have to be strictly non magical. Anything that dealt with her keen sensitivities to energy would be a threat to the barrier. Something that she would avoid at all costs.

She had no reservations about beating the stupid painted detachment with her bare hands and brute strength. Trouble was, Aki's brute strength was lacking due to her exhaustion. Her speed was down a couple notches after her tiring sprint earlier and the circle was too confining for her to use it much anyway. She was screwed. But that didn't mean she wouldn't fight anyway.

Sesshoumaru growled in frustration watching her unwavering gaze pin down a demon he couldn't see. And as if things weren't bad enough, it started to rain.

Funny thing about being invisible, just because a person is invisible, doesn't mean anything that touches or covers you will likewise be rendered transparent as the detachment soon found out.

Aki cracked a half smile; finally something decided to work slightly in her favor. Now she had a watery outline to help her in the fight. She was still horribly outmatched, but at least now she could be sure to land more than one hit on the bastard that tormented her dreams.

The almost youkai launched herself at the semi-visible detachment striking a powerful blow in the middle of what should have been his chest. Unfortunately the detachment recovered fast enough to send her flying back into the barrier hard enough to stun her momentarily.

Aki's exhausted body betrayed her before the fight had truly begun. Even though she struggled to regain her footing her legs have out under her and she slid down the wall of dead energy. Her head was still spinning from the impact and she knew she was done. She didn't need the bastard's sinister laughter to tell her that.

Sesshoumaru growled even more angry than he had been before and his frustration grew. There was his mate, in imminent danger, and he couldn't help her. He was fast losing his control and had taken several steps towards her without his knowledge.

"STAY BACK!" a childish voice called out to the advancing watery threat. Sesshoumaru looked up to see Haku standing between Aki and her attacker.

"Haku," a dark voice began, "get out of the way!"

"Aki-sama, don't do it!" the ghost replied with worry evident in his voice.

"Aki don't give in. Come on, you're okay," Fred attempted to soothe her.

"What? What's going on?" Kagome asked in concern.

"It appears Aki may have the same problem as Inuyasha without his Tessaiga," Miroku pointed to the eyes of their friend.

Sesshoumaru studied his mate more closely even as his body continued to move without him. Her eyes were flashing rapidly between green and red. It would not do to allow his mate to go insane in the clutches of her own youkai blood.

Suddenly the advancing threat to Aki lunged at her. The former English tutor pressed herself against the firm surface behind her in reflex and Sesshoumaru took the last step to the barrier.

It's amazing how things can change from one moment to the next. Aki watched stunned as the imminent threat coming towards her was forced to a stop at the apex of his leap and then forcefully jettisoned completely out of the circle. Leaving him exposed to the attack of one pretty drenched dog boy.

The almost youkai just blinked at the event unfolding before her. She found herself quite at a loss as to what had just happened. Aki let out a stunned breath before realizing she could feel warmth on one of her shoulders where it was pressed against the barrier that held her captive.

There, with his hand pressed against her shoulder and blinking in as much startlement as her, was Sesshoumaru.


	6. The Rock and the Hard Place

WEdnesday again! And like I said last week I have to work today.

I'm still waiting for my manager to fall off that rock she crawled out from under, but as much as I make her out to be a troll it isn't likely to happen any time soon. She has this horrible tendency to schedule me opening the day after closing, like I said, but she's proven to be way worse than that. I wound up working six days straight last week and in that time I stayed late once because she didn't schedule enough people and on the last day, when I was the most exhausted, I wound up opening (after closing for the second time in those six days) all by myself in my almost half of the store. The other store managers were horrified because the clothing lines are getting a ton of freight right now because of Back-to-school. DId I mention I hate my manager?

And as if that wasn't bad enough I was so tired I lost my pay check, the day I got it. I really need that money too. My life sucks.

On the plus side I actually saw someone I know at work, whom I haven't seen in over six months. She told me to go apply at Marshall fields for a management position because apparently they're hiring. I think I'll do that tomorrow. Anything to get away from this wal-mart job. I have never hated a place of employment like this before.

On a different note, I've been so tired I haven't gotten much written, even though I've had the ideas for it. Don't you just hate that? In any case, enjoy this chapter as lots of fun stuff happens in it.

**The Rock and the Hard Place**

Certain things in life just can't be explained. Things like why it's only the left sock that goes missing in the dryer, and why government officials can get away with acting so petty and immature. Freedom Fries anyone?

And then there are the smaller mysteries that only required you approach them correctly to figure them out. For example, why did Aki's possible death always seem to pull out at the very last moment even though she herself is unable to do anything about the situation when it arises?

Take this latest instance into consideration. Naraku's detachment had been very intent on killing or at least hurting Aki badly. No one was going to be able to stop him, and yet Aki was still unharmed, the detachment was gone and no one could figure out why. And Inuyasha was never one to let his confusion to go quietly by unresolved, especially not when he was surrounded by a bunch of other people equally as confused.

"What happened just now?" he panted after returning from chasing off the threat. He lost the waterlogged detachment on the edge of town and was a little peeved about it and the unexplained events that lead up to that point. "One minute Mr. Invisible is about to take out Aki and the next he goes flying out of the circle for no reason."

"It would appear that some force or other knocked Aki's attacker back," Miroku thought out loud. "As to the source of the force, I can only guess."

Aki sighed and shook some wet hair out of her face. "Does it really matter? All we need to know is that it happened at all."

"It would be good to know so it can be duplicated in future when we come up against this threat again. Especially since your barrier, which blocks both the living and the dead from crossing, did not keep him out," Tama declared.

"That detachment exists on a different plane that only barely touches on this one," Aki explained. "He can slip into the intermediate plane of dreams very easily and in rare cases he can inflict damage to people here, but only if he has previously invaded their dreams and hurt them there. The more often he does the more damage he can do," she sighed tiredly. "It works both ways though."

"He must have attacked Aki-sama often to be able for you both to hurt each other so," Sango observed.

"Every time I fell asleep for two and half weeks certainly seemed often enough for me," Aki muttered.

"That's all the time you spent away from Sesshoumaru," Miroku pondered aloud. Aki just shrugged. She'd already come to the conclusion that the detachment either couldn't or wouldn't approach her dreams when she was with the taiyoukai. "Then my guess isn't as farfetched as I thought and it really was Sesshoumaru who blocked the detachment."

"I still don't get how that would work where Aki's barrier didn't," Kagome wondered aloud.

"I didn't say I understood how it work, I just guessed who pulled it off," Miroku shrugged.

"Aki, you don't look too surprised by any of this," Fred observed.

"I figured it out two weeks ago," Aki answered with a shrug.

"What?" Inuyasha demanded. "You knew all you had to do to get away from that detachment was to go back to Sesshoumaru two weeks ago and you still kept going the other way? What is wrong with you?"

"Inuyasha," Kagome attempted to cut in, but the hanyou steamrolled over the attempt.

"Mates are supposed to be together and you ran off! Then, when you found out that just being away from him you put yourself in serious danger from one of Naraku's detachments you kept running!" The dog boy couldn't believe this. "Do you like pain or something?"

"Yes I like pain!" Aki yelled sarcastically. "I love it! I love to experience pain when the alternative is the death of everyone I see around me! I will not be the cause of anyone's death ever again!" Her chest heaved with emotion as she stood glaring at the stupid hanyou. "If it comes down between me and someone else, I choose SOMEONE ELSE!"

Inuyasha stared at her in shock as his friends around her gasped in surprise. Aki was clearly very annoyed. It wasn't like she hadn't been continuously telling them she wouldn't travel with anybody else. It wasn't like they couldn't have figured it out after all the times they'd been informed of Aki's curse and in several cases her promises because of them.

"So you choose death at the hands of Naraku's spawn in stead of a comfortable life with your mate?" Tama demanded angrily.

"He wouldn't have killed me," Aki snorted.

"What?" Kagome blinked. It had looked to her like the watery outline was intent on killing Aki.

"He doesn't want to kill me. Naraku had stipulated that I had to live through whatever was done to me," Aki informed them.

"Then why were you so terrified?" Inuyasha demanded.

"There are worse things than death, Inuyasha," Fred explained. "Any woman that ever lived could tell you that. Some men for that matter."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Inuyasha demanded.

"He means rape, Inuyasha," Aki informed him gently. "And that particular detachment has never been shy of telling me what he'd like to do to me. It starts with rape and quickly evolves into slow violent torture with sex as the after thought." She sat back down and leaned against the wall of her prison to let the rain fall on her face. "And it appears that Naraku is starting to lean the same way," she added remembering the flash of lust on his features when they were fighting. "Before Naraku just wanted to absorb me like any other powerful demon he came across. Now…" she trailed off and shuddered, both in cold and in horror.

"Well, that's what you get for parading around and being all awesome," Fred declared.

"I can't help it," Aki scoffed. "It's just so easy for a woman to be awe inspiring in this day and age. Any woman that does more than make babies and work in the fields is not normal. And just the fact that I'm part youkai leaves me open for all forms of depravity."

"I still think you should take Hanako up on her offer," Fred grinned mischievously. "Then you'd just disgust people and all fantasies concerning you would not be shared for the shame they engender."

Sesshoumaru growled at the mention of the annoying rabbit. Aki would not be taking up with her if he had anything to say about it.

"You just want to watch the girl on girl action," Aki snorted. "I'm afraid you are of the mistaken impression that if I ever did take up with a woman I would let you watch. Well it isn't happening. I'm no exhibitionist you jackass!"

"She will not be taking up with the rabbit in any case," Sesshoumaru declared firmly.

"Quite right," Aki answered in quiet anger. He had no right to tell the world what she would be doing or not. "So Sango, how do you feel about same sex pairings?"

Fred laughed as the demon slayer started in surprise. The poor woman barely even managed to gasp out half a word before the youkai lord was at her throat holding her off the ground.

"Put her down!" Aki roared angrily. She dropped to the ground sifting through the dirt with her fingers. She continued to growl under her breath as a decent rock proved illusive.

"Aki! What are you doing?" Kagome wailed, mostly concerning the statement that had placed Sango in the predicament.

"I'm looking for a decent sized rock to knock some sense into the moron over there!" Aki yelled over the commotion causing all motion to stop as she kept looking regardless of what they did.

"She's talking about you stupid," Fred glared at Sesshoumaru. "She was angry with you for assuming you had the right to declare what she was and was not going to do. She isn't a piece of property you ass."

Sesshoumaru dropped the human woman as he turned angry eyes on the ghost. "She is my mate," he growled darkly.

"She is a living, breathing person," Fred corrected him. "She has a mind of her own and will decide her future for herself. We were just teasing each other as we always do. If you don't know that much about her, then you really haven't got a clue as to what she will or won't be doing so you shouldn't make statements like that."

"She is my mate," he reiterated and advanced on the ghost.

"And I am her friend," Fred replied evenly. "That's something none of the rest of you have been privileged to be called."

Aki found and threw her rock just then. It connected soundly with the side of Sesshoumaru's skull. "You are all annoying," she muttered before deciding to stockpile some more rocks for the next time she might need one.

Fred shook his head at her with amusement in the stunned silence that followed. He glanced over at Sango still massaging her throat where Sesshoumaru had assaulted her. "Aki would probably apologize if she wasn't so certain she'd have to clock the moron again. She's looking to create a stock pile to police him the next time he stupidly decides to get violent," the ghost smiled.

Sango nodded absently. She was still somewhat stuck on what he had said before about Aki not considering them her friends. She hadn't realized it before but Aki never referred to any of them as friends. They were acquaintances, someone she was slightly familiar with but not truly friends. Sango could understand Aki well; even with just the short amount of time she'd known her. The demon slayer herself hadn't really wanted to start any new relationships after losing both her family and her village like that. Aki was seemingly the same, only Aki was taking it to an extreme because of her curse.

It kind of hurt to know that Aki wouldn't let any of them in; they were all alive where Fred was dead. But Fred had died under her curse. Fred had been her friend far longer than any of them had known her. So Aki must have realized that friendship with anybody was an instant death sentence for any of them.

Sango glanced over at the noble youkai standing statuesquely in their midst. If it hurt her this much to not be considered a friend, how much must it bother him? He was Aki's mate, yet Aki wouldn't let him into her heart. He had to find that upsetting, at least a little bit. Or did he? Sesshoumaru wasn't exactly an emotional guy and some youkai mating contracts weren't about mutual affection. Perhaps he didn't care.

They watched silently as Aki went about piling her rocks. Eventually she looked up and caught the all staring at her. "What?" she asked in confusion.

"They're a little upset," Fred explained.

Aki groaned, "What'd you do?"

"I told them the truth," he answered easily.

"About what?" she demanded with a tired sigh.

"About how you feel about them," the ghost replied. "About how they are not really friends."

"Oh that," Aki chuckled. "And they were surprised? Silly geese. I said from the start I wasn't letting anybody else succumb to my curse. Did you think I would change my mind?"

"No," Miroku murmured. "We just hadn't realized how that affected us."

Aki shook her head, "Fred could have told you; I'm not related to him, not even by adoption. He was just a friend, an obnoxious, nosy friend."

"A friend that got you out of quarantine," he reminded her.

"True that," she nodded. "And my sanity thanks you for it."

"What are friends for?" the ghost laughed.

Aki smiled at him. She said something in English that none of the rest of them could understand and the ghost laughed.

Sesshoumaru did not like being on the outside of any relationship Aki had. He did not like that joke about taking up an intimate connection with someone else. What he wanted right now was to take her away from here and prove to her that she was his mate and that she shouldn't be joking about leaving him for someone else. That she shouldn't keep important things like her heart from him. But he couldn't do it with her locked in that barrier. He was growing to really hate that damn circle!

Miroku asked Aki a question and she couldn't force her brain to make heads nor tails of it. Apparently she could no longer force her brain to translate coherently any more. She glanced at Fred to tell him this.

"Damn," the ghost muttered under his breath.

"What's the problem?" Kagome asked the ghost.

"Aki's too tired to translate anymore," Fred informed her. "Which means that unless you know English better than you've been letting on, I'm the only person here who can carry out a full conversation with her. You know and I know that certain people here will demand a translation of everything she or I say thereby making it impossible for me to carry out a stimulating conversation with Aki."

Kagome glanced at Sesshoumaru, Tama and Inuyasha. Fred was right; those three would demand to know what was being said and being forced to stop after every sentence in order to translate would slow things down to the point that even the most interesting topic would be rendered boring. "Why don't you have her recite stuff, or sing?" the ninth grader suggested. "She can't fall asleep while she's talking, and she doesn't need a partner to recite things."

"It's not a bad idea," Fred shrugged. "But I wouldn't bet on Aki not falling asleep while talking. She's exhausted, speech isn't likely to keep her from passing out."

"Well then, have her act out a play or something," Kagome replied shortly. "Keep the blood moving. It's what kids do to stay awake."

Fred shook his head but made the suggestion. Aki immediately launched into the first stanza of Edgar Allen Poe's poem _The Raven_ to spite him. She knew he hated all that morbid stuff, and Poe's work annoyed him to no end.

"You suck," he growled in Japanese, just because he knew she couldn't understand him at the moment.

"Do not disrespect the Lord of the Western Land's mate," Tama threw a barrier bubble at him. This was a new way to use her barrier making skills. She'd never thought to make hand sized barriers to throw at people until she was informed that her barriers could effect ghosts. Since she knew she would be seeing a very specific ghost rather often the old goat demon had felt the need to come up with a way to police the mouthy annoyance. For all points and purposes, it worked.

"HEy!" Fred hollered. "What'd you do that for you crazy, horned, moldy excuse for a nun reject!"

Sesshoumaru blinked at his chatelaine and allowed a small smile to hover around his mouth. It was nice to know that _some_body could punish the damn ghost, especially someone that worked for him.

"Know your place you dead human," Tama threw another barrier bubble at the ghost, which Fred promptly dodged

"What were you so upset about?" Sango wanted to know.

Fred blinked at her a moment before recalling what had first been said by him. "Aki started reciting a poem from an author she knows I detest," he answered. "All of his pieces are rather morbid and depressing. Most end in death too."

"Who is the author?" Kagome asked.

"Edgar Allen Poe if you've heard of him," the ghost muttered unhappily.

Aki finally came to the end of the first poem and Fred was all set to offer thanks that it was over before she started off with yet another poem by Poe. This one was just as depressing as the last and ended not only with death, but also with sleeping in a tomb. He grumbled at her in English and she just laughed back at him saying that _The Raven_ always led her to think about _Annabel Lee_, it was a natural train of thought.

He then demanded she switch authors after this. Aki stuck her tongue out at him and leapt into one of the holy poems of John Donne that she was familiar with from "The Wit".

"She is so annoying!" Fred yelled in Japanese. "I finally get her to stop reciting Poe's stuff and she launches into _Death Be Not Proud_. I can't win!"

"Why not just ask her for something less morbid?" Kagome suggested.

So Fred did just that and received _The Jabberwocky_ as a reward. "Now we've gone from morbid to just plain nonsense," he grumbled.

"Stop being so damn picky!" Kagome cried. "This is just so that Aki can stay awake. It isn't about you and your stupid opinions. I don't know how Aki puts up with you!"

"Guys?" Inuyasha tried to interrupt them.

"You shut up!" Kagome snapped. "I suggest she recite things and all you do is gripe about what she manages to recall to recite. She's friggin' exhausted, we're lucky she can recite anything at all!"

"Yes, well now she's not reciting anything at all!" Inuyasha yelled over their argument. "If you two weren't so busy arguing over stupid shit you'd notice that Aki stopped talking."

"What?" Kagome gasped in horror.

Aki's head was beginning to nod forward until she jerked it back up and forced her eyes open. They watched as she forced herself to get up and move around a little.

"What is she doing?" Tama demanded of Fred.

"I think she's getting ready to start a play or something," he murmured in curiosity as Aki cleared a small area to be the stage. He was slightly worried as to just what she planned to act out. His worry was justified as a moment later she launched into the opening lines of "Romeo and Juliet".

"Is that what I think it is?" Kagome asked in awe.

"If you're thinking it is "Romeo and Juliet", you'd be right. I hate "Romeo and Juliet". Actually I'm not particularly fond of most of Shakespeare's plays, but I'd rather she act out a comedy than a tragedy," Fred grumbled. "Why couldn't she have done something like "Twelfth Night or What you Will"?"

Kagome rolled her eyes, "The only difference between a Tragedy and a Comedy in Shakespeare is whether they all die at the end or they all get married."

"So they all die in this one?" Miroku asked mildly amused.

"It's a story of Star crossed lovers. The children of two feuding families fall in love and get married in secret because of the feud," Kagome explained. "The parents of the girl decide to marry her off to a cousin without knowing she's already married. She and her priest set up a ruse where her friends and family think she is dead where instead she's just asleep and send word to the guy to come get her and that all was fine. Unfortunately the message goes astray and Romeo, the guy, kills himself right before she awakens. Juliet, the girl, wakes up only to kill herself with his dagger in sorrow."

"Then the big guy in charge calls the families together and calls them and their feud stupid in front of the whole town and the play ends," Fred finished.

"Rin thinks that is the saddest story she has ever heard," Rin's soft voice announced the arrival of all three children. Shippou leapt into Kagome's arms as Rin hugged Sesshoumaru's leg and wiped her tears from her face.

Azusa made sure to cut a wide circle around the taiyoukai as she headed for Sango's side. "What is Aki doing?" she asked the older woman.

"She's acting out the story Kagome just told. It's actually a play and Aki thought that it would help her stay awake," Sango explained. Azusa gasped as Aki played out a fight seen with a tragic death.

"She's actually very good at fake death throes," Miroku observed.

"Aki used to act in school programs and stuff," Fred informed him. "Every kid loves acting out the death scenes though. You can be as melodramatic as you want. Actually she's cutting them short so she doesn't sit still too long."

"Yes, the fight scene was rather energetic," Miroku acknowledged.

"She plays Romeo rather well," Kagome said in surprise.

"Yeah," Fred chuckled. "Aki always did have a problem playing the stupid female that can't think for herself. She always hated that the priest thought up the ruse, and that Juliet couldn't think of a way out of the situation for herself. All she had to do was get the priest to tell her parents she was married."

"Well that's the way they thought of women at the time the play was written," Kagome shrugged. "It's kind of how they're thought of now too."

"Aki hates that," Fred grinned. "She has a brain and knows how to use it. She hates being coddled and told what to do, especially when she'd already decided what to do in a situation."

"I can understand that," Kagome nodded.

Sesshoumaru greatly disliked this conversation. He disliked it almost as much as he disliked the stupid play. Or rather he hated the way Aki played the death scenes so well. He didn't need the reminder that Aki was just a breath away from yet another possible death.

Inuyasha poked the growling taiyoukai in the arm. "Calm down, stupid," the hanyou ordered. "Aki doesn't have much longer until dawn. Then you can yell at her all you want," he explained. "But don't be too hard on her, she's trying to protect you and everybody else."

Sesshoumaru glared icily at the younger male. He knew what she thought she was doing to get herself into this mess. That didn't mean he had to be lenient. Intentions didn't save lives or prevent danger.

"You stubborn block of ice!" Inuyasha snarled. "I'm saying you should wait for the major scolding and punishment until you know her a little better. Most of what you're likely to do is only likely to push her away and annoy her. Aki doesn't think like the rest of us. She doesn't care what we think or how we think she should act. She doesn't care how we feel about her actions or her intentions. You have to find something she does care about before you can know how to handle her. You have to understand how she thinks in order to curb her errant behavior effectively."

Sesshoumaru growled, "How do you expect me to do that when she will not stay put?"

"Aki is not the only source for this information, moron," Inuyasha growled back and ducked as the older inu threatened to lash out at the insult. "Fred could tell you things. Sango could tell you stuff. All of us have had varying experiences with the woman. Ask for help you stupid-" Inuyasha truly had to duck that time. "Okay that was over the line, but the fact remains, we want Aki happy and we are willing to help you in that goal. Just ask."

The hanyou walked away just as Aki was performing Romeo's death. Her skill set his teeth on edge. Especially when she got up and performed Juliet's next.

Strangely, Aki did not get back up after performing this final death. The group grew alarmed when she didn't answer Fred's calls either.

It was then that Haku approached Aki to test her barrier. He glanced up in horror when he managed to get close enough to run his ghostly fingers through her hair.

"Aki!" the dead child yelled in worry. Haku then shook his head when she didn't even stir. There was no help for it. The dead phoenix pressed his middle three fingers together and started muttering under the sound of the growing panic outside the circle. His eyes suddenly snapped open as his own little barrier of blue flame settled into place.

"That ought ta doit!" he slurred together in lethargy. "'T will last 'til dawn. Yep, it should."

The ghost priest shook his head sadly at the boy. "Yes, but what happens then? What happens when we disappear for the day?"

Haku shrugged. Hell if he knew. He just knew Aki would live to daylight. Whether the shield evaporated or imploded with the first rays of the sun was up to fate. And fate was in a rather playful mood lately.


	7. The Place In Between

Ah Wednesday, how wonderful to have it off again. heehee! And as if that weren't great enough, I actually have an interview for a job in my field! It almost makes up for the great scheduling snaffu's at work this past weekend.

What do I mean? Well, I worked both Saturday and Sunday, and while that doesn't normally bother me, I don't like being the only person scheduled to work over all of softlines by myself. Both days. Again. (counting the previous Sunday). thankfully this Sunday wasn't as bad as the previous one, because Saturday was the worst. See morning shifts are where you have to put out all the new merchandise, which is why there are so many department managers scheduled during the day most of the week. The new merchandise _has_ to be put out on the floor where it goes or returned to the back. But, with only one person scheduled it is rather difficult to do that and cover the fitting room, remove foreign merchandise, _and_ answer the phone which are my primary job duties. In fact I'm a fitting room attendant so those last three things are the only things I'm actually supposed to do. But I can't do them when there's freight to put out and no one else to do it. And the worst part of all, Saturday is both busy and receptive of quite a bit of new merchandise. I was exhausted and quite peeved to say the least.

I don't mind putting out freight, I like to help, be part of the team and all that rot. What I don't like is being the entire team by myself when some idiot failed to schedule the necessary people. That's right, we're back to talking about my stupid manager who can't make a decent schedule to save her life. Moron. And It's not just affecting me or this side of the store. When she pulls this kind of crap they have to call in someone from a different part of the store where the managers are actually intelligent enough to schedule enough people so that I can go eat and take breaks and another part of the store can answer the stupid phone. _And_ we have to leave the fitting room unsupervised which increases the risk of theft and I get blamed for it despite the fact it's not my fault.

but enough of that. You're only interested in the next chapter, and you should be. Aki proves once again to be unkillable and entirely too entertaining to the fates in charge. Don't ask, they really are crazy! oh and I just realized I failed to put my rather subtle disclaimers in the last couple chapters. Well if you don't know what's mine and what isn't by this point, you aren't using your brain and I'm very disappointed in you. Not! On with the unusual!

**The Place In Between**

The ghost boy had been certain to inform the group just what could possibly happen when the sun came up and they'd spent the last half hour or so before dawn on pins and needles, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. And Aki comfortably slept through it. Well maybe not so comfortably, she unconsciously wound up rolling over her cache of rocks forcing the hard ammunition to grind unpleasantly together.

"Five minutes to go," Kagome announced, fidgeting over her watch. She wasn't sure if she was glad the wait was almost over or not. The suspense was seriously getting on her nerves, but not so much she wanted to hurry along Aki's possible death.

Fred chuckled quietly and everybody turned to glare at him. This was no laughing matter! The ghost rolled his eyes, "Aki will be fine." His declaration was firm, with no detectable doubt in his tone.

"How can you be so certain?" Sango asked anxiously.

"Because I know Aki," he smirked. "She always manages to escape the kiss of death. Either she'll do something to pull through, or something else will happen to prevent the termination of her life." The ghost winked at them, "The only true threat to Aki's life is Aki herself."

"I don't think I like that," Tama muttered.

"Well, the thing is, Aki promised not to die easy," Fred explained. "So once she's survived something or someone's attacks, she won't be taken down by them ever again. No illness, beating, or insult will ever bring her down. Nobody she's already fought will be able to come back and defeat her. That's just the way Aki works."

"Well she hasn't survived this yet," Kagome pointed out. "Has she?"

Fred smirked, "Aki has met a lot of different people, what makes you so certain she hasn't already met a phoenix before?"

"A phoenix?" Sango gasped.

"Yeah, Haku was a phoenix," Fred answered. "And Aki's met one before."

"And she's fought and defeated a phoenix?" Sango asked incredulous. Phoenix weren't known for fighting so much as healing. She highly doubted Aki had ever been in this particular situation before either.

"I didn't say she'd fought a phoenix," Fred grumbled.

"Would you two shut up? The sun is rising!" Inuyasha bellowed.

As they watched, the ghosts in the circle started to fade from the site, leaving only Aki inside the blue barrier. To their horror, the moment the last ghost disappeared from sight the flames of the shield changed color from blue to red and began to shrink.

"Oh no!" Kagome cried as the group rushed on the slowly imploding dome of flame.

The former English tutor groaned mutely and mumbled something incoherent. She couldn't care less what was going on around her, she was trying to sleep.

Sesshoumaru tested Haku's barrier with a wary fist only to withdraw the appendage in minor pain. His skin reddened with the resulting burn. "Aki wake up!" he demanded with a snarl.

Aki mumbled something else under the roar of the fire and abruptly disappeared.

Silence blanketed the village.

"What the hell happened this time?" Inuyasha growled in annoyance. He was getting really tired of all the weird shit that kept happening. HE didn't like being left out of "the know".

The hanyou's annoyed demand set off a flood of questions from the others all wondering where Aki had gone, if she was all right, and whether Naraku had something to do with it or not.

"ENOUGH!" Sesshoumaru roared over the cacophony of voices, entirely too upset to put up with all the noise asking all the same questions he wanted answered. If Inuyasha was annoyed about all the strange events going on, Sesshoumaru was downright pissed. The strange happenings were all centered on his mate after all.

"Well what do you know? I was right," Fred chuckled childishly. "I told you something would happen."

"Where is she?" the demon lord demanded darkly.

"She's fine," Fred smiled impishly.

"That isn't what he asked!" Tama yelled and threw a barrier bubble.

"That's too bad," Fred dodged the missile and made a face at the old goat. "That's all I know for sure. She's alive and she's safe. Be happy for that!"

"How do you know that?" Azusa asked apprehensively.

He blinked down at the little girl, "Because if she was dead I wouldn't still be here."

"Why's that?" Shippou asked curiously.

Fred grinned at the fox, "Aki is my anchor so to speak. If there is no Aki, then there is no Fred. My purpose would have ended if she had died, but she hasn't so I'm still here."

"Well, that explains how you know she's alive, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's safe," Sango pointed out.

"Yeah, but see, Aki is currently somewhere I can't follow, which means she's gone someplace where death or the dead like me, either don't exist or can't exist. Therefore Aki cannot be killed wherever she happens to be at this moment," He explained.

"That still doesn't necessarily mean she's safe," Kagome echoed Sango.

"Yes it does!" Fred growled. "The only place that fulfills those criteria is filled with beings that hold no malice for those summoned there."

"Aki was summoned?" Kagome mumbled in disbelief.

"She's not here is she?" Fred pointed out derisively.

"Still, I didn't see anybody summon her," Kagome argued.

The ghost rolled his eyes, "Of course you didn't, nobody came here."

"Then how was she summoned?"

"They invoked her name," He replied.

"They called her name?" the ninth grader asked, incredulous.

"No, I said 'invoke', there is a difference."

"What's the difference?" Shippou was confused.

"The difference is they used her true name mixed with the power to call her to where they are. There's a bit more to it of course, but that's just semantics." He explained vaguely. "I'm surprised they actually knew the name that Naraku is looking for when Aki and I both no longer remember it.

"She doesn't remember this name, but she still answers to it?" Tama bit out in disbelief.

"The soul never forgets its name, even if the mind does. It's just as well, because if Aki had remembered her name, Naraku would've already won their little contest."

Sesshoumaru raised his eyes to the ghost not needing the reminder that the evil hanyou wanted his mate. It seemed like everything in the world was conspiring to terminate his relationship with Aki. And Aki wasn't helping things either.

Of course Aki couldn't care less at the moment as she finally started to wake up. She opened her eyes to the strange orange whatever that surrounded her. There was orange in every direction and absolutely no indication as to which way was up or down, as she seemed to float weightlessly in place. She might have dismissed it as a dream if not for the continuing manifestation of the various gashes and cuts she'd collected from her altercations with Naraku's painted detachment.

"So you have awaken," a voice spoke softly to her left. The voice was strange and sounded like more than one-person spoke the same words at the same time but weren't quite in sync. Aki turned to look at the source of this strange sound and found a purple cloud. The cloud chuckled softly as Aki's eyebrows soared in surprise. "We are glad you are awake. Though you are not as well as could be wished."

"Who are you?" Aki asked quietly her voice echoing despite her lack of volume.

Another voice spoke, this one distinctly feminine despite the mix of voices and echo. "We have many names, depending on who you talk to. We are gods, I think that's the generic term for us."

Aki blinked but refused to comment. "Where are we?"

"You are in our world, which is not in the same plane as yours. We summoned you here to help you," the second voice answered. "We would've called you here sooner, but we did not know your Name."

"We had quite a bit of trouble finding it. It eluded us for quite some time," the first voice informed her.

"I'm not surprised," Aki offered in sympathy, "that name is dead. Has been for several years."

"Nonsense. Nothing that exists here is dead, death is not welcome here, for nothing here dies," the first voice declared brusquely.

"Names can be forgotten or even lost, but they do not die." The female one clarified.

"I wished it were dead, I thought it was" Aki replied painfully. "Why couldn't it have died with them? It would've been less painful."

"We apologize, if we'd known sooner we could have helped."

"What do you mean?" Aki demanded. "Why should you help me?"

"You have no idea what you are," the first voice said with wonder.

"Your kind is sacred to us and extremely rare. Thousands of years separate your births," the second voice informed her.

"My kind?" Aki raised a recently lowered eyebrow in skepticism. "I have a kind?"

The purple cloud chuckled at her again, "Quite. It is very rare for youkai to breed outside their own animal. Rarer still for their offspring to again breed outside those first two species. Even more rare is for all those combinations to be of the predatory class and yet still have a gentle and forgiving heart."

"I still don't get it," Aki sighed tiredly. She wasn't that forgiving and there were several people that would argue she wasn't particularly gentle either.

"No? I am not surprised," the female voice said soothingly. "None of the rest ever did either." The voice paused, "It doesn't matter really. You need only understand that we will help you."

"Help me how?" Aki demanded. She really didn't need the "help you over a cliff" kind of help.

"Well, to begin we are going to heal you," the first voice answered gruffly. "You are in pretty bad shape you know."

Aki nodded quietly, "I suppose I am."

"You suppose?" the purple cloud chortled. "I have never seen one of your kind so uncaring for their physical health!"

"Hush," the female scolded, "don't harass her about it. She has her reasons."

"Reasons! What the hell reasons could she possibly have? She will never last like this!"

Aki listened tiredly as the two proceeded to argue. It was slightly amusing playing spectator to an argument between entities that appeared no more substantial that little wisps of clouds. She could almost imagine that this was how thunderstorms started.

Aki sneezed, speaking of rain; she was still soaked to the skin in her clothes. "Excuse me, but could we please get this over with before I catch a cold?"

The voices silenced and Aki closed her eyes savoring the sound. Ah, peace at last. Then both erupted simultaneously in apology. Aki winced, "All right, how are we going to do this?"

"Well," the female voice began, "you are going to have to get undressed. We will be using a spell that will heal you, but only what is visible."

Aki blinked, "What?" she asked incredulously.

"Actually," the purple cloud began. "The thing is, the spell will heal the first thing it comes in contact with. Clothing would be in the way, and it is not a living piece of you. The spell will return your physical body to the state it was in _before_ you first fell through time."

"So it'll erase all the scars I've gotten since then right?" Aki inquired for clarification.

"That is correct, however if you have since healed something that was injured before that, it will not reopen the wounds," Mr. Purple answered.

"Meaning if you had a skinned knee before you crossed time and have since healed it, it will not reappear as it was," the softer more feminine voice added.

"Okay," Aki replied slipping the only button left on her shirt. She felt a fleeting moment of sadness over the missing buttons. Really, did Sesshoumaru have to be so impatient?

There was a soft girlish chuckle from the second voice's direction. "We can fix your clothes if you like," she said warmly.

Aki's face lit up in a childish grin and she finally turned in the direction of the second entity. The source of the second voice was yet another cloud. The second cloud was fluffy and white outlined with baby blue shadows. It reminded Aki of the giant cumulus clouds seen on clear sunny days.

"We can even make them a little more durable so your clothes won't be so easy to damage," Cumulus added.

Aki's smile grew even wider, "I would like that very much. This shirt is very special to me."

Cumulus chuckled again, "I can see that, it is practically threadbare."

"We were trying to do something remember?" Mr. Purple interrupted.

"Right," Aki nodded and finished undressing. "Now what?"

"Now we need you to bring all your youkai blood to the fore," cumulus stated.

"Relax and take a nap," Mr. Purple recommended. "When you wake up, you will be good as new."

The white cloud laughed softly as Aki fell asleep very quickly under their watch. "Really I don't know why you never fixed that whole clothing issue with the spell."

"If it is not broken do not fix it!" the purple cloud replied shortly.

Cumulus sighed, "Let us see just what work has to be done and get started."

"It is amazing the damage she has sustained," Mr. Purple mumbled mostly to himself as he checked his patient over. "Looks like she's already mated," he pointed out distractedly.

"Yes, but there is something wrong with the contract," Cumulus thought aloud. "Ah! There it is," she clucked as she 'read' the mark. "It has the potential to become an incredibly long-lasting contract."

"But? You said there was a problem with it," he prompted.

"But the youkai didn't follow all the rules," Cumulus finished sadly. "Too bad though. He could have been a good match for her," again with the thinking out loud. "Oh well, it will have to go."

"Yeah," the purple cloud agreed. "Are we ready to do this now?"

"Let's do it," she gave her affirmative.

Back in the real world, Sesshoumaru sat staring at the spot his mate had last occupied. No matter how often the ghost of Aki's best friend tried to assure him his mate was in no danger, the fact remained the almost demon girl was not with him. Until she was, he refused to budge. Again he had failed to prevent her departure from him.

"Why do you insist on glaring at the ground as if it was responsible for Aki's disappearance?" Inuyasha pestered the elder inu. The taiyoukai merely growled in response. His hanyou half brother snorted. "Fred says Aki will be back before night fall. Why can't you just accept that? He would hardly lie about his best friend you know." Inuyasha continued to ply Sesshoumaru with annoying questions.

For his part Inuyasha was only playing with certain death in hopes of distracting the inu youkai from yet another painful separation from Aki. Frankly the hanyou knew how Sesshoumaru felt. He felt that way nearly every time Kagome went home, though for different reasons. It was a painful, lost, angry feeling that left one fearing abandonment by the person who was gone.

Finally dog boy managed to pry a vocalized and coherent answer from the youkai lord. "Inuyasha, if you do not cease this onslaught of moronic prattle I will personally see to it that you are unable to speak for many years in the future." Sesshoumaru's voice was dark with tightly reigned irritation.

Inuyasha was certainly not stopping now; he'd finally gotten an articulate response. He was making progress, why quit now? "It lives! I was beginning to wonder who had snuck in here to replace your body with an inanimate look-a-like. Whew! That's a load off my mind," Inuyasha quipped sarcastically.

"Inuyasha, do you have a death wish?" Tama called to the dog boy.

"You stay out of this you old goat," Inuyasha shot back at his former nanny.

"Don't presume to order me about you young rogue!" the old goat demon hollered back indignantly. "I remember you in diapers!"

"So what!" Inuyasha shouted in response.

"Oh the stories I could tell all your friends," Tama started smugly. "I could tell them about the time you had your first taste of sake when you knew you weren't supposed to have it yet."

"You wouldn't dare!" Inuyasha bellowed even louder, that was one _embarrassing_ story.

"Oh wouldn't I!" the matron smirked evilly. "How about the first time you discovered the wonders of girls?"

"I want to hear that one," Miroku jumped at the chance to hear such a story eagerly.

"Hentai," Inuyasha muttered, his face scarlet.

It appeared as if Inuyasha was doomed to live through all his most embarrassing moments of childhood. And Tama knew just about all of it too. The dog boy knew the old demon had kept tabs on him even after he and his mother had been left at the hands of her kin. Tama did things like that just to torment him.

Lucky for him, Sesshoumaru wasn't in the mood to hear any of it. "Silence!" the taiyoukai demanded.

"Geez, what a grouch!" Shippou grumbled into the silence. His attitude promptly changed when said grouch sent a lethal glare his way. "Eep!"

"Something appears to be happening," Sango called everyone's attention back to the place Aki had last been seen. The air above the ground seemed to shimmer for a moment before parting. A figure stepped through and floated to the ground seemingly chatting with someone behind the shimmering air.

Once the figure touched the ground the shimmering stopped. The stranger turned around to look at the group expectantly. This person standing in front of them, with her light brown hair and dark hazel eyes, seemed vaguely familiar to Sesshoumaru.

True the great lord didn't recognize her. Then again Sesshoumaru didn't normally recognize most humans, for the individual standing before them appeared entirely too human. The fact that the very exotic seeming human before him seemed vaguely familiar obviously meant he'd met her before. And very likely had wanted to kill her as was his normal desire when presented with one of the filthy lesser breed.

He couldn't remember why she would still be breathing at this point in time, but he was in a really bad mood and the strange human presented a convenient opportunity to rake his claws through living flesh.

It didn't occur to him that the clothes the strange human wore were the same as Aki had been wearing. It didn't occur to him to check see if the others knew her.

All that mattered was that he was in need of stress relief, Aki had not returned yet, and this insignificant creature had instilled a false hope that she had returned.

That was all that mattered and Sesshoumaru charged that strange hazel eyed human without a second thought.

Our brown haired human stared confusedly at the incoming demon. She was so stunned she almost didn't react in time.

At the last possible moment she avoided a neck full of claws by throwing herself into a hasty back flip. Of course just because she dodged one attack didn't mean Sesshoumaru was going to let her get away. He kept charging and she kept dodging as the onlookers that recognized her began to shout in horror.

Inuyasha knew who she was as did Kagome and Shippou. Sango had guessed it. The human Sesshoumaru was currently attacking was none other than the Aki he had claimed as mate.

That didn't mean the taiyoukai knew that. The Aki he knew had never been so human. The Aki he knew had blond hair and green eyes you could drown in.

To Sesshoumaru's increasing fury, the human female miraculously managed to continuously avoid his outstretched claws and the toxins that dripped from them. The girl was something else and the sane part of his brain took note of her acrobatic movement. He'd never seen a human so graceful under pressure. He had also never met a human so devoid of fear. Here he was, claws practically at her throat and she did not fear him.

At most she looked confused, slightly hurt and very surprised. A surprise that only increased when her heal caught on a rock causing her to trip violently and take him down with her.

Before Sesshoumaru could recover, Aki quickly rolled out of his reach. She went to stand and sensed something coming at her from the opposite direction of the dog demon. Something disgustingly familiar, something evilly menacing that meant to do her a great deal of harm. She didn't think; she just reacted.

Aki threw her hand and one foot forcefully into the solid body she couldn't see. Utilizing said body's momentum, she threw it up and over her, causing it to land with a bone-crunching thump on the other side of Sesshoumaru.

Sango stepped up nonchalantly and swung her hiraikotsu down on top of the area that had been disturbed. Instantly the invisible foe was no longer invisible.

There lying crushed under the exterminator's giant boomerang was a very dead looking painted detachment.

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened minutely in surprise. What was that particular detachment doing here? Aki wasn't present, or was she?

The inu youkai quickly turned back to his prey only to find Inuyasha, sword in hand, growling at him. KAgome was helping the human girl to her feet.

"What on Earth did you think you were doing, Baka!" Inuyasha yelled at him.

"What – " Sesshoumaru began before a very familiar voice interrupted him.

"What in the world is going on!" the new human exclaimed. "I disappear for a few hours, come back and everything has gone crazy!"

"There's a perfectly good explanation for it," Kagome patted Aki soothingly on the back. "Shippou could you bring me my mirror please."

"Got it, Kagome!" the kit raced into the shrine building.

Aki stared at Kagome flabbergasted. How could a mirror explain all this insanity?

"You're so going to hate yourself when you find out who you just tried to kill," Inuyasha said out the side of his mouth. The elder of the inu brothers was just about to interrogate the younger when Shippou returned with Kagome's mirror.

"Here," Kagome said as she handed the mirror to the elder Human-looking woman.

"Kagome, I don't see how a mirror is going to explain all…" her voice petered out momentarily as she caught a glimpse of her reflection. "Oh," she gasped numbly continuing to gaze in the mirror. Her features slowly melted into a radiant smile as realization started to sink. "There I am," she breathed softly. "Oh wow!"

"See Aki-chan, he's never seen you as you were before the Urasei. He didn't know it was you," Sango explained softly.

"Oh wow!" Aki ignored the explanation. "I'm me again! I never thought I'd…I mean I wanted but…Fred, Look! I'm me again!"

Fred hovered just behind her shoulder, grinning maniacally at her joy. "Aki, you were always you. You know that."

"Yeah, but it's been such a long time since I've looked it," Aki's smile grew impossibly wide. She joyfully danced a bit before tripping to fall on the ground laughing. "Oh, I suddenly feel so much better," she sighed. "That does kind of explain why Sesshoumaru would try to attack me," Aki chuckled, slowly sitting up, "he's not exactly a people person."

Inuyasha snorted, "understatement of the century."

"Hell, I've known that since the first time I met him," Aki continued. "Of course I don't think he recognized me the second time around."

Sesshoumaru gazed at her slightly puzzled.

"You could've just been in a bad mood. You had just lost your arm after all," Aki added.

"I forgot about that!" Fred laughed.

Sesshoumaru blinked at the woman smiling so brightly on the ground. Aki had been his hallucinated caretaker? His caretaker hadn't been a hallucination? Why hadn't he figured it out before this?

"So what did they do besides make you look like you used to?" Fred wanted to know.

"They fixed my clothes!" Aki smiled brightly.

"You mean we worried about you just visiting your tailor!" Tama huffed.

"Aw you worried? You shouldn't have," Aki teased before continuing. "They made my clothes a little more durable so they won't be damaged so easily."

"Hey neat trick," Fred marveled.

"They also returned me to the physical state I was in the first time I fell in the well," Aki continued while rolling up one of her sleeves. "All of the scars I've collected since then are gone now, see." She showed them her elbow. "Though they didn't fill my stomach, did you save all that stuff you horrible people stole from my soup?" she asked eagerly.

Her question was met with surprised laughter from most of the party. They were relieved she was okay. They were pleased she was hungry. Thank goodness the whole affair was over and everybody survived it.

But one person was not laughing. Sesshoumaru had thought of something that still worried him and he was determined to investigate it as soon as possible.


	8. Here On Earth

Woo-Hoo! It's Wednesday again, time for more of that awesome craziness. Or rather, time to pick up where that last chapter left off. Sorry if it seemed a bit of a cliff hanger, but I wound up dividing the chapter off, and that was the best place to leave off in the middle. Anywhere else and one of the chapters would wind up being too short, and we all know how that would've been taken.

But who cares! Now we get to finally know what the hell flew up Sesshoumaru's nose! And Fred gets to have a little fun too, fun giving Sesshoumaru a hard time that is.Ah Fred, if only every girl could have such an awesome friend. Sadly, such good guy friends are of exceedingly short supply unless you happen to live in a city full of Metro sexuals, and even then they're too stuffed with worry over their appearrance to be wonderful.

Fred was loosely based on a friend, and right around the time this friend started being rather horrible, bad/annoying stuff started happening to Fred. Heehee! Ah, I cleaned up some of it when I typed it up, but the correllation remains. Everybody's favorite ghost is the only original character derived from a single live person. And he'll never know because he doesn't watch anime or read fanfiction! (Shocking, I know!)

Just to give everybody a heads up, This is the last chapter in this part. Aki takes off again and the story has to catch up with her in the next part, so be looking for it next week! And as always, do not feed the Inuyasha characters or rattle their cages. They don't like that!

**Here On Earth**

While some people require very little to make them perfectly content, others always require a little something extra just to be contrary.

Sesshoumaru was apparently one of those contrary bastards.

It wasn't enough that Aki was alive and had survived the night. It wasn't enough that she actually had returned the way Fred had said she would. It wasn't even enough that she came back in better shape than expected. No, after hearing the words "returned to the state I was in" before he'd even met her left her lips he wanted to be certain his mating mark was still in place.

That's right. Sesshoumaru was only worried that some unknown party had revoked his mating contract while he wasn't watching. It was something that pulled all of his attention from everything else going on.

So when everybody else headed into the shrine building to heat up something for breakfast, he'd latched onto Aki's arm and held her behind. He'd been unable to see the expanse of skin he needed to from a discreet distance so he would have to take a closer look. He held her quietly, watching the others until the last of them disappeared in the doorway of their temporary shelter.

Aki just stood there and blinked. The talkative clouds had warned her that Sesshoumaru might pull something like this. Actually, she was slightly surprised it had taken him this long to do it. She knew what he wanted to know. She also knew he wasn't going to like what he would find out.

She waited calmly in the cage of his arms as he watched the shrine doorway a few moments longer to be certain no one would come back out. His arms tensed around her before one arm loosened itself to run through her hair.

Finally he sighed and drew the line of her body back against his own to take a single calming breath of her elusive scent before taking the proverbial plunge into the future. Sesshoumaru gently swept her hair out of the way and looked down.

The ivory column of Aki's neck greeted the molten gold of his eyes. It was perfect, without blemish, soft and smooth and his heart clenched at the sight. His mark was gone.

Sesshoumaru took another deep breath. Fine then. His mate stood before him unmarked, easily fixed. The inu youkai shoved her hair out of his way and gripped her tightly to hold her still. He tensed his muscles ready to sink his teeth into her again.

Aki shoved him away with her elbow before he could strike. "No!" she growled firmly as she stumbled and fell. The former English tutor turned to look at the growling taiyoukai. "No," she said again. "I didn't remove it, I didn't know I could, but I'm not going to let you push me into this again."

Sesshoumaru growled. What did she mean 'No'? She was his!

"I didn't have a say in this last time," she growled fiercely. "Now that I've got a second chance, I'm damn well gong to keep you from pushing me into this." Aki took a deep breath before continuing. "I wasn't asked for permission before, and I don't understand the whole thing, but I'm sure the hell not going to be manipulated back into something that is borderline to breaking one of my promises." The former English tutor leveled a severe glare at the demon lord. "Go find some other female to fill the position. I'm not interested in finding a life partner or mate. I'm not looking to betray my promises or myself simply because it's convenient to you!" Aki sighed, "It was never my intention to cause pain, Sesshoumaru, let me go."

Sesshoumaru reached out and caught her arm in a bruising grip. "I will not. You are my mate!" he growled at her stubbornly. "You are mine. I will not just 'let you go'."

"I am not a piece of property!" Aki yanked her arm out of his grasp, ignoring the forming bruises. "I am a person with my own thoughts and ideas. I have obligations to fulfill and I can't do it with you forcing me to break them at every turn. Either you let it go or I will force you to!" and she promptly turned on her heal and followed the smell of food.

Sesshoumaru was just about to take off after her and prove his dominance when Fred's voice stopped him.

"Wait." The ghost demanded. "Don't go running after her right this minute. It'll only make your situation worse." His advice was rewarded with a look that could melt the dashboard of a car. "She told you she wouldn't break her promises just because it's convenient to you, remember? If you want her back as your mate, you've got to prove to her that it is more than just convenience that motivates you stupid," Fred drawled out as if the dog demon was too dumb to pick up on it.

"Will you get to the point already?" Sesshoumaru rumbled impatiently.

"My advice to you is to first off stop treating her like some object or toy you can own. It's degrading for her and presumptuous of you. Has she ever told you she was interested in belonging to you? No! Aki is her own person and she's going to live life her own way," Fred declared firmly. "So the next time you happen to talk to her, apologize."

Sesshoumaru growled at that, a note of chilled death clearly evident in the sound.

"If you don't respect Aki enough to apologize for continuing to pursue a behavioral pattern she has repeatedly requested you to quit, then you obviously don't want Aki," the ghost snapped smugly. "That's perfectly fine with me, I never wanted you for her anyway. You obviously can't be trusted with such a precious treasure. Go find someone better suited to your disrespectful, possessive nature." Fred turned to leave the demon lord.

Sesshoumaru resisted the urge to roll his eyes in irritation. What was more important? His pride or regaining Aki as mate? Actually the real question was how badly did he want Aki and why. He'd first desired the almost demon when he had encountered her after saving Rin. Her ability to accept whatever was thrown her way and fire back the same had likewise drawn him in. It was an unusual skill for a female her age. She was beautiful in any form she'd taken thus far, but that wasn't particularly important. There were other more malleable females who were just as beautiful.

The demon growled softly to himself, truth was, he liked the challenge she presented him. He was intrigued by her ability to control a conversation effortlessly. Her quiet smiling depression disturbed him and her gentle strength amazed him. There was no help for it. He wanted Aki and no one else would do.

Sesshoumaru groaned mentally, "So I apologize then what?" he asked quietly in resignation.

Fred paused to look at him of his shoulder. "You promise to try not to do it again. And you better be sure to say 'try'. Wording is very important. Explain that it's some instinctual thing to act that way. It won't make it right, but it might give you a little more leeway." The ghost paused a moment in thought. "That's just a start you understand, you will have to start treating her like a person and not some object." Sesshoumaru nodded sharply, "As for the other problem, that's going to take more time."

"How so?" the youkai asked impatiently.

"Well you can't just walk up to her and say 'I fancy you!'" Fred explained. "It doesn't work that way. I mean, besides it being totally out of character for you, she wouldn't believe you if you said it now anyways."

"This Sesshoumaru does not tell lies," Sesshoumaru snarled.

"I didn't say you did, but it would be all together too convenient for you to decide right now, right after she told you convenience wasn't enough, that you cared for her." Fred shrugged, "There is no quick fix for this, and you can't go into this half heartedly and never finish. Time is slowly running out." The ghost got a faraway look in his eyes. "Aki won't see the end of this if someone doesn't catch her."

"What?" Sesshoumaru demanded barely concealing his confusion.

"Okay, here's what you're going to have to accomplish if you're absolutely sure you want nobody else but Aki. First off, you're going to apologize, and then you're going to apologize every time you make her angry or upset. I don't care how trivial it seems or if it was for her own good, you apologize and try your damnedest not to make her cry. Secondly, you will no longer deny that you want Aki as a mate and no one else. You pride keeps messing things up and I'm going to tell you right now, if Aki ever lets you into her heart words can hurt her. Thirdly you will continue with the above behavior _even when Aki isn't around!_ Your most telling behavior will be what you do when you don't think she's around to hear or see you. If nothing else an apology for something you did that she didn't know about will seem endearing and work directly in your favor. Also, just because you think she can't hear you doesn't mean she can't." Fred shook his head; "You've already lost brownie points for that once." At Sesshoumaru's blank look the ghost explained, "Aki was originally going to say goodbye to you before she left, but after hearing what you said to the little green guy when he asked about her she changed her mind and we left rather quickly."

Sesshoumaru's eyes unfocused as he tried to remember any such conversation. He nearly blanched when he did. She had over heard _that_? It's a wonder she would even speak to him now!

"I wouldn't try to apologize for that now, you've already lost the chance to do so without making it worse," Fred informed him. "One last thing I can tell you, don't lie. And I mean about anything. Especially if it's something bad or embarrassing about you. She'll believe you don't trust her and that will be detrimental to what you're attempting to accomplish." Fred smiled warmly, "Of course if something never gets brought up, she doesn't have to know. And that's about as much help as I can offer."

"Why are you offering me aid?" Sesshoumaru questioned the ghost's motives, it was very clear they shared a mutual dislike of each other.

"Because I like Aki and you're the only one so far that's managed to get past her barriers. Because I suspect her curse will be taken care of shortly thereby circumventing one of her promises. Because when it does, Aki may be so far beyond help as to be incapable of healing," Fred answered quietly without looking at the taiyoukai. "Because Aki plans her battle with Naraku to be her last." The ghost turned to look fully at Sesshoumaru, "you asked her once, when she was human and you'd just lost your arm, if she had a death wish. She didn't answer you then, just like she wouldn't now if you asked her again. I'll tell you now, Aki wishes she had died with the rest of her family, she wouldn't hurt so much and I can understand it. She won't take her own life because of the promise she made and under normal circumstances she wouldn't go out of her way seeking trouble. Kagome's quest gave her an excuse to seek death without breaking her promise. I want you to be there to stop her wanting to die. I want you to give her the reason to live. Aki is too good to die now."

"Hey Fred," Aki called from inside the shrine.

"Coming," Fred answered cheerily before the demon lord could question him further. The ghost winked at him quietly before immediately turning to the vision of Aki framed in the doorway.

"I hear I owe you profound thanks for saving my soup," Aki beamed at the ghost.

"No thanks needed," Fred grinned. "I knew it was your last can. Once Kagome found that out, she did her best not to ruin it."

"Ah," Aki nodded.

"Aki, here's your soup," Kagome appeared it he doorway holding the mug from before.

"Thanks!" Aki replied cheerfully. Kagome smiled and disappeared back into the shrine while Aki slid down to sit on the porch with her back to the wall. The almost demon happily breathed in the aromatic steam floating over the cup with a smile.

Sesshoumaru took a deep breath to calm his temper. She had every right to be difficult about his previous marking. He, himself, hadn't followed the rules. He slowly moved to the porch. Aki didn't look up at him as he sat facing her with his back leaning against a support pole.

"It's impolite to stare you know," Aki scolded him mildly.

Sesshoumaru just scoffed at her and continued to watch her eat.

"You know, if you were anybody else, I'd think you had an unhealthy fascination with watching people eat," she teased him while sipping the salty broth in the cup.

"Indeed," he said softly.

"Did you want something?" Aki began then changed her mind. "Scratch that. Did you want something I'd be willing to help you with?"

Red flashed in his eyes momentarily before he got a hold of himself. Sesshoumaru took a deep breath and held it as he tried to decide what he should do. Should he take Fred's advice and apologize while promising to modify his behavior? Should he ask her to promise no other would take his place while she refuses to accept him back?

One thing at a time, he first had to make sure she was willing to "talk" to him at all. He gave a barely audible sigh while Aki continued to absently eat her soup waiting for his answer. One thing he knew about her, she could be incredibly patient if the situation warranted it. Sometimes he envied her patience, and his own was legendary!

Sesshoumaru mentally shook his head and addressed the female before him. "We need to talk," he said softly. The four words dreaded by almost everyone who has ever heard them.

Aki focused on her cup, "About what?" she asked indifferently. It had better not be more of the "you belong to me" rhetoric or she was going to be thoroughly pissed off.

"Many things, most of them private," Sesshoumaru glanced darkly at the suddenly quiet interior of the shrine.

Aki almost smiled, one would surmise that Sesshoumaru wouldn't be so leery of a bunch of lowly humans overhearing what he had to say if Inuyasha and Tama weren't part of the same group. "Perhaps you would prefer talking somewhere more private, hmm?" she asked quietly as she finished the contents of her cup. "Pick a hut, we have a whole village to choose from."

Sesshoumaru looked like he would reject the idea of remaining within the confines of the village for a moment. Then he really thought about it. If they remained in the village, they would risk the half-breed and his friends eavesdropping on them, but if they moved out of the village they risked stray demons catching the conversation. Staying in the village was the lesser of the two evils. It amazed him that she had already come to that conclusion on her own so quickly.

"All right," he said softly as he slid off the porch of the shrine.

Aki set down her cup and pushed to her feet, using the wall for support. A movement made more difficult by the sudden dizzy spell that left her vision swimming. When she could see straight again, she carefully moved away from the building, giving Sesshoumaru a miniscule smile of reassurance, before walking down the road to the other end of town.

After a bit of looking they managed to find a hut on the outskirts of the village that was wholly undamaged. It smelled strongly of its former inhabitants, making the inu youkai vaguely uncomfortable. Sesshoumaru suppressed the grimace of distaste and focused his attention on the other occupant of the enclosure.

"Alright, talk," Aki encouraged softly.

The corner of Sesshoumaru's mouth quirked up into a kind of half smile. It only lasted a moment, barely a second in time, before his mask fell into place. "Aki," he began hesitantly. He'd never had to really apologize before in his life, he wasn't sure of what to do.

"Hmm?" She encouraged a little bit more.

"I wanted to, to…" drat! Who knew it could be so difficult to say one word? Aki nodded for him to continue whatever he was saying. "I wanted to apologize," there, he managed to spit it out.

Aki blinked in surprise. "What?"

"I said," Sesshoumaru fairly growled.

"I know what you said!" Aki interrupted. "I want to know what prompted this!"

"I…" Sesshoumaru began slightly at a loss. Suddenly it struck him that it might be unwise to tell her that Fred had told him to apologize. "I – I just realized that you were right." Aki blinked owlishly at him stunned. "I have continued to disregard your reasonable request for me to modify my behavior towards your person. I am ashamed of this inexcusable disrespect and therefore I should change my treatment of you and your preferences accordingly."

"Um, thanks?" Aki murmured, bewildered with this conversation.

"What I am trying to impart is that I will try to stop treating you as a possession, but I might not be totally successful," Sesshoumaru paused hesitantly. "It is in the nature of inu to be territorial. It is instinctive to be possessive, but I will try to curb it."

Aki slowly absorbed what he said and a smile blossomed on her face. "Thank you," she sighed happily. "I'll try not to be too waspish about it then, as long as I know you're trying." Sesshoumaru gave a big sigh of relief. Aki quirked up her eyebrow at his strange behavior, "that wasn't too hard was it?" she reached out and squeezed his hand. Almost immediately her grip tightened in instinctive panic as the room seemed to sway. She cried out as she began to fall only to be wrapped securely in Sesshoumaru's embrace.

"What?" he asked, barely suppressing the worry in his voice. "I thought you said they fixed you."

Aki's mouth quirked up on one side, 'fix' her indeed! Shaking her head reassuringly she informed him that while they did 'fix' her, she still hadn't had enough sleep.

"Are you quite certain that is all this is?" the youkai lord inquired.

Aki smiled up at him, "Yep, while the rest of me is fine, my brain does require sleep in order to recuperate properly."

"If that was the case, why did you not sleep right away?"

"Well for starters you tried to kill me, then that detachment did. Then I had to explain things. Besides, the people that healed me also told me I needed to eat before I conked out for a few hours," she closed her eyes as the world went spinning again.

"Then sleep. We have an empty, quiet hut to ourselves, you have eaten, and no one is attacking you. Should anyone try, I am here to convince them it is not wise. Sleep if you need to," Sesshoumaru shifted her in his arms until they were both on the floor with Aki in his lap.

"I can't just conk out. You weren't done talking yet!" she grumbled, pushing against his chest mutinously. How she knew he had more to talk about he couldn't be certain.

"Talking can wait, you need sleep, or I could hunt down that herb Kikyou used to put you to sleep before," he threatened gently.

"Or you could just keep talking and finish what you started," she demanded.

"I only had one more thing to ask you," Sesshoumaru began, running his fingers through her hair absently.

"Hmm," she yawned hugely.

He tucked her head under his chin and cuddled her closer. "I can ask you later," he assured her. "It is not something that requires an answer just now." Sesshoumaru listened to the sounds her body made as it slowly shut down to rest.

He sat there for hours, cradling her body to his chest and watching the sunbeams skate across the earthen floor by the door. And as boring an occupation as it may have been, he was still unhappy to see Inuyasha at the door of the hut telling him the day was nearly over and he had to move.

Inuyasha didn't actually say it like that. He wasn't _that_ stupid. What he'd said was that Tama was erecting a barrier around the shrine building for the night so that everyone could get a good night sleep after the two nights before. "She figures that at the very least it'll keep Aki out of trouble until morning." The hanyou explained sarcastically.

Sesshoumaru nodded and stood up fluidly, still holding Aki to his chest, and exited the hut after his half sibling.

"How long's she been out?" Inuyasha asked slightly worried about his sister-figure.

"A while," the taiyoukai answered blandly.

"How long is 'a while'?" Inuyasha inquired slightly peeved that the bastard hadn't given him a straight answer. Was it so hard to just answer a question without being so die-hard vague about everything? It wasn't like the information would hurt anything.

"Since just after she ate."

"That was this morning! Are you sure it's alright for her to sleep so long?"

"Aki's fine," Fred insisted from behind the dog boy, causing him to jump and curse the ghost.

"Don't do that!"

Aki mumbled something in English and shifted slightly in Sesshoumaru's arm. She rubbed her cheek against the silk covering his chest before settling again.

"Would you be quiet!" Fred hissed at the loud hanyou as Sesshoumaru picked up his pace, leaving the ghost and Inuyasha behind.

There was no real need to wake Aki just yet, no matter what Inuyasha thought. The whelp always had been impatient with others.

Despite his efforts to keep her slumbering quietly, Aki's sleepy eyes fluttered open with a reluctant moan. She blinked and rubbed her eyes to clear the sleep from them before focusing on the face hovering above her. She smiled tiredly up at him and cleared her throat.

"You can put me down now," she told him softly and punctuated her statement with a huge yawn. His arms tightened around her unwilling to let go. "Please Sesshoumaru, this is going to be really uncomfortable in a few minutes."

He had to think about her words a moment before he managed to grasp that she was talking about her impending changes brought about at sunset. She really would be uncomfortable if Sesshoumaru continued to hold her this way while nearly her entire shape changed. He gently allowed her to stand on her own.

Aki gave him a tired smile and soft thanks, before her breath caught and she was engulfed in the brilliant light of her change. Fred cursed in realization as he and Inuyasha caught up with them. The light pulsed brighter, forcing Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru to look away or risk being blinded.

Almost as quickly as the torment began, it ended and Aki's knees gave out under her in relief causing her to pitch forward. Sesshoumaru caught her without much effort.

"I swear you do this to make us worry," Fred griped playfully.

"I assure you Fred, that if I had the ability, I would so be hurting you right now," Aki gave a dry cough as she pushed against Sesshoumaru to stand on her own. The inu youkai refused to move too far away in case she showed further signs of weakness. "So what were we doing before I woke up?"

"Returning to the shrine," Sesshoumaru answered.

"Because?"

"'Cause Tama's going to put up a barrier so everyone can sleep tonight," Inuyasha explained.

"You weren't the only one that was awake almost all of last night," Fred informed her. "And some of those same people won't be able to sleep tonight if they don't feel that you are beyond harm's reach."

Aki blinked for a moment before a slow smile slid on her face. "Well, if me being behind a barrier of Tama's making would help these people sleep, what are we doing still standing out here?"

Fred stared at her suspiciously, "You're up to something."

"Probably," Aki agreed blandly. "But as long as I get inside of Tama's barrier I can't possibly get into any trouble right?"

"There's a loop hole in that, I'm sure of it," Fred muttered.

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha demanded. "Nobody makes a stronger shield than Tama! Hell, I've heard she managed to block you, so I wouldn't be too worried."

"You obviously don't know Aki very well," Fred grumbled under his breath.

Tama erected her barrier and everybody ate and settled down to sleep in the peaceful comfort of the secure. That is, everybody but Aki.

While the rest of the occupants dreamt the dreams of reassurance, the partial youkai was wide-awake and preparing to make her escape. That is, once she managed to get out from under Sesshoumaru's arm.

He held her like she was his teddy bear and he a very big, handsome toddler. Even so, she was determined to get away.

"What are you doing awake?" a voice asked out of almost nowhere. Aki did not jump in surprise.

"Fred," she hissed so quietly he had to float closer to hear her. "I've got to head out. I can't do that if you wake everybody up. I have to be somewhere in a few days and come hell or high water, I _will_ be there." Aki continued keeping her voice incredibly quiet. "Now you can either help me or get out of my sight because I most certainly will find a way to hurt you if you screw this up!"

"All right! Sheesh!" Fred grumbled. "I can't help it if I forgot about that museum trip being in a few days."

"Well, now you remember, so are you going to help me or not?"

"I'm dead. I can't exactly do anything," Fred hissed in a harsh whisper.

"If I was dead I'd be able to figure something out," Aki grumbled as she tried to roll out from under Sesshoumaru's arm. An attempt that failed badly as the unconscious inu youkai pulled her tight against his chest at the first sign that she was moving away.

Fred nearly laughed, "The great and powerful Aki, cuddled to death by an unconscious demon that wants to get in her pants!"

"Shut up!" Aki hissed. Then she picked up a lock of Sesshoumaru's hair and tickled the skin behind his ear. The arm around her waist lifted to brush aside the offending hair before resettling around her middle. Aki did it again and escaped as soon as he moved to attack the evil hair that dared to annoy him in his sleep.

A few minutes later, the youkai lord settled with his unconscious victory of the evil tickling hair.

"I'm amazed that worked," Fred stared in disbelief.

Aki nodded her agreement before collecting her stuff and heading to the room housing Azusa. There was no way in hell she was leaving the little girl here after all she'd been through, especially not with the way Sesshoumaru had treated her after Aki got stuck in the circle. She gently lifted the little girl into her arms and headed to the shrine exit.

The child stirred half way through the large room, asking her "what's going on?" Aki replied in mild tones and finally reached the door.

"Well, wonder woman, how are you gonna sneak out of this barrier without immediately incurring the wrath of one relatively ancient demon goat?" the ghost asked tauntingly.

"Just shut up and watch, stupid," Aki murmured. The almost demon closed her eyes and whispered something under her breath. "Really, you'd think they'd realize after the information I gave Miroku that you just can't hold someone like me against my will like this."

"What do you mean by that, Aki?" said monk called from the doorway. "Where do you think you are going?"

"I have a prior engagement back home in a few days and a group of people I can't let down. Go ahead and wake them all up. By the time you're done, I'll be long gone with a shield in your way so you can't give chase," Aki informed him.

"Then I won't waste the effort, but how do you plan to get out of Tama's barrier?"

Aki rolled her eyes, "Miroku, what is this barrier made of?"

"Youki," the monk answered promptly.

"Which is…"

"Youkai spiritual energy-" he closed his eyes in chagrin. "Energy. The barrier is made of energy, which you are adept at sensing and manipulating. Now I feel remarkably slow."

Azusa smiled at him comfortingly, "Don't worry, Fred didn't think of it either."

"Hey!" the ghost cried.

Aki turned back to the barrier and finished setting up her escape. "All right Azusa, let's go," Aki stepped forward confidently. "Sorry Fred, but I couldn't fix it so that you could come. You're stuck here until the barrier lets up in the morning."

Fred just nodded, "No worries, I'll catch up."

Aki smiled and settled the little girl on her back as she walked to the edge of the village, then she started to run, disappearing out of sight.

"Tomorrow shall be a very interesting day," commented the monk.

"No more so than yesterday," Fred grunted. "I'd play dumb if I were you."

Miroku smirked, he'd not needed a dead man to tell him that. There was no way he was going to own up to letting Aki get away. He liked being alive just fine.


End file.
